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

[Mallory Knodel <[e-mail]>]

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 athttps://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 athttps://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>.

    [RFC9389]  Duke, M., "Nominating Committee Eligibility", BCP 10,
               RFC 9389, DOI 10.17487/RFC9389, April 2023,
               <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9389>.

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