On 09-06-2022 11:49, Alun Davies wrote:

Dear colleagues,

After the Women in Tech session at RIPE 84, Anastasiya Pak from the RIPE NCC caught up with Shane Kerr to hear more about his attempts to measure the gender gap at RIPE Meetings. In this latest episode of the RIPE Labs podcast, hear more about the goals behind this and the challenges that come with approaching the RIPE gender data gap:

https://labs.ripe.net/author/anastasiya-pak/approaching-the-ripe-gender-data...

Best regards,

Alun Davies RIPE Labs Editor RIPE NCC

Deliberate change requires setting goals, working towards them and checking progress. So what diversity goals should we set ourselves? In gender diversity the popular/simplistic goal has been to reflect world population: classical 50/50 or contemporary with more categories. Shane also voices this in the podcast. Is this the right benchmark? Shouldn't we set goals based on the diversity of groups that are closer to our community? I have seen some organisations setting diversity goals based on current ratios: "We will double the percentage of female graduates in five years time." Others base their goals on statistics of a larger population they serve: "We will have double the percentage of female graduates compared with the average of similar programs in Europe." I strongly believe we should set ourselves realistic goals. I also believe that diversity has other parameters than gender and that our efforts on gender diversity should not lead to a loss of other diversity we have already achieved. Daniel