Re: [Gendispatch] New Version Notification for draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00.txt

["Rob Wilton (rwilton)" <[e-mail]>]

Hi Mallory,

I like what you are trying to achieve here, but I would suggest that we try and go slightly further.

Taking the IETF 117 survey, Report | Qualtrics Experience Management<https://ietf.co1.qualtrics.com/results/public/aWV0Zi1VUl8zT3laRG9JQWxidUkxZ0otNjRkMjQ1MTVjYTVkZTkwMDA4OGY0Zjk1#/pages/Page_59bc7806-86fc-40ca-905f-33aaed57a8be>, then the report indicates that roughly 16.5% of IETF participants are not men.

If I read your proposal correctly, then you are suggesting that there must be at least one voting member (i.e., 10%) that isn’t the dominant gender, but I would suggest that we aim for at least 2, i.e., 20% of the voting committee should not be the dominant gender.

Regards,
Rob


From: Gendispatch <[e-mail]> On Behalf Of Mallory Knodel
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2023 12:02 PM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [Gendispatch] New Version Notification for draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00.txt


Hi all,

A short draft to consider in the selection of nomcom voting volunteers to ensure minimum gender representation, available here and copied below:
URL: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00.txt
Status: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation/
HTML: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00.html
HTMLized: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation

===

Operation of the IESG/IAB Nominating and Recall Committees     M. Knodel

Internet-Draft                       Center for Democracy and Technology

Intended status: Informational                          20 November 2023

Expires: 23 May 2024





        Gender Representation in the IETF Nominating Committees

              draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00



Abstract



   This document extends the existing limit on nomcom representation by

   company in order to improve gender diversity by ensuring that not all

   voting members of the IETF Nominating Committee (nomcom) belong to

   the same gender.



About This Document



   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.



   The latest revision of this draft can be found at

   https://mallory.github.io/nomcom-gender-representation/draft-knodel-

   nomcom-gender-representation.html.  Status information for this

   document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-

   knodel-nomcom-gender-representation/.



   Discussion of this document takes place on the Operation of the IESG/

   IAB Nominating and Recall Committees Working Group mailing list

   (mailto:[e-mail]), which is archived at

   https://lists.elistx.com/archives/ietf-nomcom/.



   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at

   https://github.com/mallory/nomcom-gender-representation.



Status of This Memo



   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the

   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.



   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering

   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute

   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-

   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.



   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months

   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any

   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference

   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."



   This Internet-Draft will expire on 23 May 2024.



Copyright Notice



   Copyright (c) 2023 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the

   document authors.  All rights reserved.



   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal

   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/

   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.

   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights

   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components

   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as

   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are

   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.



Table of Contents



   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2

   2.  Gender Representation in the IETF Nomcom  . . . . . . . . . .   2

   3.  Suggested Remedy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

   6.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

   Appendix A.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4



1.  Introduction



   The literature supports the claims that lack of gender diversity in

   hiring teams reinforce under representation of gender minorities in

   leadership positions and that lack of gender diversity in leadership

   perpetuates gender discrimination [Vervoe].



2.  Gender Representation in the IETF Nomcom



   The IETF considers influence and weaknesses in nomcom selection in

   [RFC8713].  Likewise, gender diversity in IETF leadership should be

   considered a community strengthening exercise insofar as gender

   diversity has been shown to lead to more productivity, creativity and

   reinforces a culture of respect and value for all participants.  If

   we consider the nomcom as a "team", it will itself benefit from

   having more gender diversity among its voting members.



   To address gender representation in the IETF nomcom, we need only

   ensure that all voting members are not of the same gender.  All

   attempts to ensure gender representation in the nomcom should

   include: a. increase participation in the community from women and

   non-binary individuals so that the eligible pool is more gender

   diverse.  b. encourage eligible women and non-binary members of the

   community to accept selection to the nomcom.



   While the IETF does not routinely confirm the gender of volunteers,

   we have committed to improving gender diversity in the community by

   way of measuring it and identifying concrete steps to mitigate

   imbalance.



3.  Suggested Remedy



   The “two-per-organisation limit” can easily be extended to ensure a

   nomcom consisting of no more than n-1 members from any one gender

   (where n is the number of available volunteer slots), requiring skips

   for the nth slot until a gender minority volunteer is chosen.



   This assumes that for any given pool therein contains at least one

   gender minority volunteer.



   This short remedy might update [RFC8713].



4.  Security Considerations



   There are no security considerations for this document.



5.  IANA Considerations



   This document has no IANA actions.



6.  Informative References



   [RFC8713]  Kucherawy, M., Ed., Hinden, R., Ed., and J. Livingood,

              Ed., "IAB, IESG, IETF Trust, and IETF LLC Selection,

              Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the IETF

              Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 8713,

              DOI 10.17487/RFC8713, February 2020,

              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8713><https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8713>.



   [RFC9389]  Duke, M., "Nominating Committee Eligibility", BCP 10,

              RFC 9389, DOI 10.17487/RFC9389, April 2023,

              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9389><https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9389>.



   [Vervoe]   Vervo, "Gender Discrimination in Hiring Practices", 2022,

              <https://vervoe.com/gender-discrimination-in-hiring-<https://vervoe.com/gender-discrimination-in-hiring-practices/>

              practices/><https://vervoe.com/gender-discrimination-in-hiring-practices/>.



Appendix A.  Acknowledgments



   Thanks to Martin Thompson and Suresh Krishnan for informed initial

   thoughts on bringing this idea to the community.



Author's Address



   Mallory Knodel

   Center for Democracy and Technology

   Email: [e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>