Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
'Extreme privilege': Ivanka Trump faces backlash over keynote speech at CES
Source: The Guardian
'Extreme privilege': Ivanka Trump faces backlash over keynote speech at CES
Decision to have president’s daughter deliver keynote invited scathing criticism, especially from women in the tech industry
Kari Paul in San Francisco
Wed 8 Jan 2020 00.51 GMT
First published on Tue 7 Jan 2020 22.34 GMT
Ivanka Trump’s appearance at a major technology conference in Las Vegas has been met with a backlash from industry figures, who denounced her “privilege” and lack of tech qualifications.
Trump spoke in a keynote session on Tuesday afternoon at CES, a consumer electronics trade show, on “the path to the future of work”. In an interview with Gary Shapiro, the CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which organizes the show, she addressed technology’s role in creating and enabling the workforce of the future.
The annual CES gathering has long taken criticism over diversity issues. In recent years the CTA has invited more women to speak and sought to curb some of the show’s more sexist aspects, such as scantily clad “booth babes” hired to draw the attention of the mostly male attendees. In 2017, there were zero female keynote speakers scheduled for the second year in a row.
CES faced intense criticism in 2019 for revoking an innovation award given to a sex toy company led by a female founder, who criticized the decision as sexist. The conference ultimately reinstated the award and apologized. It also instated new rules in 2020 to improve the environment at CES, including enforcing a dress code banning booth personnel from wearing clothing that is “sexually revealing or that could be interpreted as undergarments”, regardless of gender.
But for critics and activists who have long pushed for broader recognition of the less-heralded women, the inclusion of Donald Trump’s daughter, who is also a White House adviser, sends exactly the wrong message.
“Ivanka is not a woman in tech,” tweeted Brianna Wu, a video game developer who is running for Congress in Massachusetts. “She’s not a CEO. She has no background. It’s a lazy attempt to emulate diversity but like all emulation it’s not quite the real thing.”
-snip-
Decision to have president’s daughter deliver keynote invited scathing criticism, especially from women in the tech industry
Kari Paul in San Francisco
Wed 8 Jan 2020 00.51 GMT
First published on Tue 7 Jan 2020 22.34 GMT
Ivanka Trump’s appearance at a major technology conference in Las Vegas has been met with a backlash from industry figures, who denounced her “privilege” and lack of tech qualifications.
Trump spoke in a keynote session on Tuesday afternoon at CES, a consumer electronics trade show, on “the path to the future of work”. In an interview with Gary Shapiro, the CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which organizes the show, she addressed technology’s role in creating and enabling the workforce of the future.
The annual CES gathering has long taken criticism over diversity issues. In recent years the CTA has invited more women to speak and sought to curb some of the show’s more sexist aspects, such as scantily clad “booth babes” hired to draw the attention of the mostly male attendees. In 2017, there were zero female keynote speakers scheduled for the second year in a row.
CES faced intense criticism in 2019 for revoking an innovation award given to a sex toy company led by a female founder, who criticized the decision as sexist. The conference ultimately reinstated the award and apologized. It also instated new rules in 2020 to improve the environment at CES, including enforcing a dress code banning booth personnel from wearing clothing that is “sexually revealing or that could be interpreted as undergarments”, regardless of gender.
But for critics and activists who have long pushed for broader recognition of the less-heralded women, the inclusion of Donald Trump’s daughter, who is also a White House adviser, sends exactly the wrong message.
“Ivanka is not a woman in tech,” tweeted Brianna Wu, a video game developer who is running for Congress in Massachusetts. “She’s not a CEO. She has no background. It’s a lazy attempt to emulate diversity but like all emulation it’s not quite the real thing.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/07/ivanka-trump-ces-technology-las-vegas
16 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
There's no way I would have attended and listened to that empty, vapid grifter.
