Female attendees at a major conference for women in technology were outraged after some males allegedly attended by identifying as non-binary in order to seek the high-paying jobs offered at the meeting.
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was held in Orlando, Florida, during the last weekend of September.
Some attendees said on videos on TikTok that the men were shoving women out of their way and cut in lines in order to provide their resumes to tech companies.
Another attendee claimed on LinkedIn that men were claiming to be non-binary or simply selecting “prefer not to answer” on forms for entry into the event. Business Insider admitted that they could confirm the accusation.
“On top of that these men are acting like zoo animals, sprinting to the booths, and physically hurting the attendees,” the woman added.
The event is named after Grace Hopper, a famous pioneer of female mathematicians whose efforts were utilized by the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Another commenter claimed the event was “over-capacitated by rude, disrespectful, and female-attacking men.”
“Instead of feeling inspired and energized, I feel drained and overwhelmed,” wrote another commenter named Nandini Agarwal. “I’ve missed half the day! I want a full refund, worst experience ever!!!”
Videos from the conference expressed outrage on social media at the number of men present.
Others said the men were hitting on women, harassing other attendees, and even pulling their hair and groping them, according to an attendee who wrote about her disappointment at Medium.
The president of AnitaB, the group that organized the conference, responded to comments by attendees in a video on LinkedIn.
“Many of you are feeling unsafe, physically, and psychologically, and you’re feeling unheard,” said Bo Young Lee.
“We tried to create a safe space, and this week we saw the outside world creep in,” she added. “This makes me angry, and it makes me sad, but mostly it makes me want to fight.”
Men can be seen in some scenes of a video recap of the conference posted to YouTube by AnitaB, but the comments were disabled.
Here’s video from the conference by AnitaB:
GHC 23 | Sept. 28 Recapwww.youtube.com
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