give a voice to half of humanity

"There are more people named Paul than women on this panel." A comment made by a colleague at main on one of our Sack channels last February.

Since then, there have been more and more examples of events, panels, and media announcements where women are clearly underrepresented, completely absent, or added at the last minute as a " photo op." " And when you see it, you can't unsee it." And it's frustrating.

However, the need to promote more women is not a new idea. main; I have often seen our CEO Louis-Félix decline an invitation to participate in an event so as not to be "yet another man on stage."

The observation is absurd: there is still a dismaying lack of women speaking out in the public arena.

We're not talking about promoting women who work in your company. As a friend of mine says, "We make up 50% of the population; the simple fact that we occupy half the space in the workplace is the bare minimum."

We are talking here about listening to women's voices, putting women forward, those who, naturally, will not put themselves forward. Interesting fact: when putting together the program for last year's Accelerator Summit, I called on everyone to contact me with proposals for presentations. Among the brilliant people who volunteered, 0% were women.

When browsing social media, I often see promotions for events featuring lots of women as headliners, and I think to myself, "Wow, it's refreshing to see so many women on a panel." But then I realize that the content is about "women in tech" or "women in science."

Organize panels on women in tech, women-focused events—we need solutions designed by and for half of the population. But please, give the same importance to representation across all your events, not just to a peripheral segment outside of prime time.

Putting women forward, on panels, in programming, at the head of companies, is not simply a matter of fairness. As Caroline Criado Perez writes in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, "when we exclude half of humanity from knowledge production, we lose potentially transformative ideas."

She cites the example of Google's headquarters in California, which had never considered providing parking spaces for pregnant women until one of its female managers became pregnant and realized that it is much more difficult to walk long distances when you are eight months pregnant. It cost Google nothing to add dedicated parking spaces for pregnant women. It just took someone with a uterus in a management position to think of it.

Fortunately, we are surrounded by organizations, supported by exemplary individuals, who are committed to representation. To name just a few:

• The Startupfest team, with whom we are working to set up Acceleratorfest, is an unwavering guardian of diversity.
• The Women Experts Initiative, as its name suggests, identifies and recruits women experts to engage in various fields.
• A few years ago, the Women in Tech Manifesto superbly proposed a manifesto for "gender parity in technology events, to combat the underrepresentation of women in the industry."
• The Quebec Business Women's Network supports and promotes Quebec women.
• The Government of Canada offers a guide for planning inclusive events.
• And, of course, the Urelles organization, launched by Chloé Freslon, supports companies in matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

We still have a long way to go as an organization, and we remain open to suggestions.

in its day-to-day activities, main applies the principles of gender parity in appointments to its senior management and board of directors. In addition to having more female members, the board of directors of main is composed of competent individuals who are committed to the support ecosystem, come from diverse backgrounds, and many of whom identify as people of color.

main has also included in its internal processes a salary review carried out by an external firm to ensure gender equality and avoid any form of discrimination in the hiring process.

It's not easy to lance an abscess publicly.

If I have the motivation and platform to write these lines, it is also largely because I am surrounded by exceptional men who are as sensitive as I am, if not more so, to the issue of women's representation. Among them are my boss, Louis-Félix, my colleague, Guillaume, and my partner, Adrien.

I also understand what this means for my role in creating opportunities for the Quebec startup ecosystem to come together. I am personally guilty of having held events that frankly lacked diversity. I know what it's like to want to finalize your program so you can communicate it as soon as possible to those who will travel, who will pay with their money or their time, and who will choose to come and hear what you have to offer, rather than doing something else important. We want to deliver and we want to check items off our to-do list.

Eventually, I know that I will find myself at one minute to midnight before an event, and that cancellations will leave me facing the possibility of having an event without diversity. I will have to take shortcuts. But that is precisely when I will have to redouble my efforts, be creative, and not fall into the trap.

I pledge to do everything in my power to ensure that we do not deprive ourselves, as Caroline Criado Perez says, of the knowledge produced by half of humanity.

— Joyce McLean, Manager — Summit and Community Relations @ main