EFF at the Global Fund for Women

GFW every so often organizes Brown Bags, where we invite the public to join in on conversations that effect the women’s movement. Brown Bags range from learning about the movement on the ground by having either our Grantee Partner sharing their experiences or having our Program Team sharing their travels upon returning from their visits to our Grantee Partners to general policies presented that effect human rights in general. This Brown Bag focused on Women in Technology. I was fortunate enough to organize this one where we had Kellie Brownell from the Electronic Frontier Foundation present the work they do, which is undoubtedly keeping our voices free from any kind of restrictions. They have been pivotal in instilling policy that no one really thinks about. At the beginning of her presentation, she used Google’s requirement to specify your gender and name as an example. EFF pointed out how detrimental this is, especially if you want to keep your gender anonymous. Think about it – all technical forums out there have inherent sexism involved, it is a known fact from the women in the Open Source community find it difficult engage. Their experience has been one that, once the forum realizes what gender you are the forum quickly dismisses you. At any rate, here’s the live recording of the Brown Bag, feel free to share widely as the work of EFF, as well as the ADA Initiative, is JUST beginning to recognized by the general public.