Many thanks to the many of you who wrote supporting us in asking the PSA
about the lack of women speaking at the PSA co-hosted conference on
Britishness. We made enquiries from the PSA and have received a response
from the conference organizer Charlie Jeffrey via Jon Tonge, Chair of the PSA.
Below is the relevant sections of Charlie's response:
I can only assume the Women's Group has only read the cover sheet of what
to my knowledge is (and certainly should be) a 4-page pdf. On the front
cover there is a 'speakers include' list, which is sadly all men. We should
ask NSA to change this (tho see proviso below). But if anyone reads further
onto page 2 the very first speaker of the day is Alison Park, then there are
Fiona MacTaggart, Edwina Hart, Sarah Smith and Judith Mayhew Jones. That's
one woman in each session, which is not ideal, but a reflection of past
prejudices not any current ones. In addition Frances Cairncross, ex business
editor of Economist was asked to contribute to business panel but couldn't.
I can confirm that the PSA group and NSA developed the agenda with gender
issues firmly in mind. The problem appears to be that the marketing people
did pick out any women for the front cover highlights, but there is some
reason for that too: only two women are so far confirmed (Alison Park and
Sarah Smith), while all the men highlighted are confirmed.
In our reply to Charlie, we made it clear that we had referred to the PSA
website which had only listed the male speakers.
Yours
Sarah and Rosie
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