Margaret Stewart — who some of you many remember from the Mighty Closet feature I did with her one million years ago — has some solid suggestions for speakers, organizers, and interviewers about how to ease onstage sexism at conferences: What My Uterus Can Teach You About Being a Tech Leader. It’s a good read, have a look.
I’d also add, if you’re balancing genders in a speaker lineup, avoid having more than one woman at your conference speak to the issue of harassment (unless that’s the topic of your gathering of course). That interests me to a point, but taken too far, especially at tech conferences, it can be exhausting and disheartening. It puts women in the spotlight not for their accomplishments, but as the object of threats from a mostly male chorus.
Mighty Girl 