TEDwomen Conference Announced, But Is It Necessary?

Last week, TED — a non-profit organization that stages prestigious annual conferences dedicated to sharing innovative ideas — announced that it would be launching a two-day spin-off conference in Washington, D.C., this December called TEDwomen. This conference will be dedicated to exploring the roles of women and girls in shaping the global future. It all sounds very interesting and engaging, but I have mixed feelings about this.

One one hand, it is about damn time the folks at TED started acknowledging women as powerful agents of change and sources of innovation. Since TED conferences began in 1984, less than 20% of speakers have been women. At this year's event, only a scant 17 out of 57 so-called TED Talks will be given by females. So certainly TEDwomen sounds like a step forward.

There is tremendous value to be had in learning from and about powerful women.  Too often, women's experiences and ideas are marginalized and devalued. Generally speaking, I support anything that works to celebrate and empower women. Again, this all seems to be great, except...

I can't help but feel that TEDwomen is a consolation prize for women not being invited to speak more at the main event. Much like Ryan Brown over at Salon's Broadsheet, I wonder if creating a separate conference reinforces the idea of women as the "other" and that their ideas and contributions are a special-interest niche, not suitable for the main event. As Brown says, "when you're in the idea-spreading business, it's important to make sure that your ideas are going out not just to the people most inclined to listen to them, but also — perhaps especially — to those who are not."  If TED really had an epiphany that women's voices should be heard, why not work harder at closing the gender gap at their annual (and larger) conferences?

Even if you are completely on board with the women-centered conference, don't book your tickets to D.C. just yet. TED conferences are notoriously exclusive. Membership to TED is $6,000 and registration for TEDwomen is $2,200, and even if you have the money, that doesn't mean you will receive a coveted invitation. So, not only will the speakers, in many respects, be preaching to the choir, but it will be a very wealthy choir at that.

I hate to sound like a whiner about something as potentially positive as TEDwomen. It will lend a very powerful microphone to some very important voices and, for that, I am certainly grateful. I genuinely wish that I had a little over $8,000 just lying around so I could try to attend the conference. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be looking at the event or the organizers with a critical eye. I am particularly interested in seeing the diversity of women invited to speak. That said, what I am really looking forward to is seeing whether this new-found interest in female voices will last longer than two days in December.

Photo credit: hiddedvries