SCAMP 2012: where were all the guys?
I went along to SCAMP 2012 yesterday and what a fantastic event it was. Friendly, inspiring, smart - there were some great speakers and just as interesting attendees. I particularly liked the format. The curators of SCAMP deliberately selected speakers who wouldn't just stand up and talk to some slides. Clare Reddington brought a lucky dip of props - the audience members picked one and then she spoke about it in relation to her work. Nange Magro presented a prototype of a dress which can be controlled with brainwaves. Salena Godden floored us with her fiery poetry performance. Mixing up talks with performances, conversations and audience participation gave the day a really nice rhythm and flow. One other conferences could learn from.
BUT. This is not what I want to talk about right now. There was one thing yesterday which irked me. Where were all the men in the audience? There must have been about 5 men there, 4 of whom were speaking. What's with this? No need to come because it's just for the ladies?
I ended up having a Twitter debate with SheSays and the lovely @Elinesca about why this had happened.
I totally respect #scamp2012 ambition to showcase female speakers but it's a real shame that the audience is primarily female too.
Thu Jun 14 13:14:19 +0000 2012
Cath Richardson
@ohrworm good point. How do we change this? X
Thu Jun 14 13:21:54 +0000 2012
She Says UK
@shesaysuk @ohrworm maybe it's as simple as asking them to come? Just met one, he was here because he was asked to come...
Thu Jun 14 13:31:14 +0000 2012
Elinesca
@Elinesca @shesaysuk know what you mean, I think there's a perception that it's by women for women. Need to break out of the girls' club.
Thu Jun 14 13:33:58 +0000 2012
@ohrworm @elinesca you could be right. Our publicity was mainstream. Maybe the boys weren't interested!
Thu Jun 14 13:53:04 +0000 2012
@shesaysuk @ohrworm well, to be honest, I would feel weird about attending a conf that described itself as an event mainly for men... :):)
Thu Jun 14 13:57:54 +0000 2012
@Elinesca @ohrworm but we don't! All our info clearly states we are for everyone
Thu Jun 14 14:25:04 +0000 2012
As you can see, SheSays are adamant that the event is open to everyone to attend and they say so explicitly in the event blurb.
SCAMP is for people who are looking for inspiration beyond the usual creative industry bubble. We welcome thinkers, makers and doers from across the creative, media and communication spaces: cross-platform specialists, publishers, artists, curators, strategists, creative technologists, UX evangelists, writers, designers… and of course, girls and boys are welcome.
But how many people bother to read that? How many are simply put off by the name SheSays? Maybe it's not so much that they think the event is exclusively for women, but that it's somehow more relevant to women (whatever the fuck that means)?
Afterwards one of the few men in the audience told me he'd come along because he was interested in the format. But he did wonder whether he would be welcome and though he was, he did feel weird being one of the only gents representing.
This is terrible and absolutely not what SCAMP is about. As a woman, I feel uncomfortable going to an event that is perceived as only for women. I don't want to join a girls' club. It's just weird.
How can we change this? I don't want to start another boys v. girls debate (yawn), but I would love to hear more thoughts, especially from the men who didn't come.
5 comments
I agree. I think it’s about the decision making process for going to events. If you hear about an event, you’re only going to read the blurb if it instinctively feels relevant.
Funny this article.
I initially came across SCAMP on Creative Social Blog
http://www.creativesocialblog.com/events/scamp-conference
And this is how my brain processed the information
1. Oh a nice conference
2. It’s organized by SheSays. But what is SheSays (aka what kind of conference will it be)
3. Go on SheSays website, and read the baseline
“The only global creative network for women”
4. Brain saved the word “ONLY” “NETWORK” “WOMEN”
5. Oh it’s a conference for women to network
6. Moved on
What can be done to change the perception of the event?
Add a men or neutral gender as organizer to “counterbalance” the SheSays effect?
Add a promise for the conference including anyone “a place for women and men to….”?
I guess it’s hard for me to suggest thing without knowing the objective of this conference.
O/
PS: Where can I sign up for next time? ;)
I had the pleasure of speaking at SCAMP and really enjoyed the experience and the day’s events. You raise a very interesting point though Cath. I think Olivier pretty much hits the nail on the head as far as how the average person thinks: male or female, people will do a bit of research into an event and part of their decision making process will include looking for subtle clues of relevance. In the opening speech of SCAMP they showed an example of an entirely male speakers list for an upcoming digital conference and rightfully made the complaint ‘where are the women? / this needs to change’. However similarly the SCAMP speaker list was almost entirely female which in an industry dominated by men is a very powerful statement. And this is where the confusion for some people lies – what is SheSays’ trying to do – address a balance? Raise awareness? Or shake things up? I honestly believe their ambition is to redress the male/female balance but a nearly entirely female speaker list sends out a different subliminal message and its not of balance. It can be played down all you like using gender neutral language to describe the event but a digital conference with 90% female speakers stands out: it’s unusual, shocking, thought provoking, impressive and even as you found it, weird. These are the subtle clues of relevance that I’m talking about – I don’t think guys are put off by a it being mainly women at all but they are put off by what I think this subtly suggests – by women, for women. And lets face it everyone has a fear of going somewhere and feeling out of place.
In reality I felt really welcome, I found the speakers thought provoking and interesting and the virtually all female audience definitely gave the event a different and in some respects refreshing and positive dynamic to the normal format of a digital conference.
Thank you Jonny for your feedback.
From my perspective, the “minority stigmatization”stops when there is no more majority nor minority.
Therefore should we aim for a 50/50 crowd ?
What if only women could sign up but they had to invite a man to do so.
The twist to convention (the man inviting the woman) seems a good way to shift perception no?
Thanks for your comments guys.
If SheSays was purely about providing mentoring-style events for women to learn from and be inspired by other women, I wouldn’t have such a problem with the low number of men attending – it genuinely wouldn’t really be for them.
But I think SCAMP wants to do more than that. Jonny reads it as redressing a balance. I read it more as an attempt to shake things up and create an opportunity to showcase great female speakers. I don’t think it needs more male speakers or a male organiser to make it clear that men are also welcome to attend.
Whenever you get into the issue of the low number of women speaking at events I often hear the excuse that there’s a speakers’ circuit, women aren’t really on it, men tend to know more men and they recommend each other etc. etc.
Well if that’s really the case then why aren’t those other event organisers coming to SCAMP to meet and hear from great women speakers? Why aren’t SheSays actively out there inviting them to come to SCAMP instead of just holding them up as a bad example?
Oliver I think your suggestion of only allowing women to come if they invite a man along is perhaps a bit artificial but I think it would definitely help to highlight more boldly the fact that the event is for men and women at the point of sign up. Make a point of asking attendees to invite male and female friends and colleagues to come, and make sure that as organisers you are leading by example.
When other guys see people they know are going, and they’re both men and women, then they’ll be less likely to have that instinctive reaction that this event isn’t for them.