What role for Professional Societies?

Professor Cornelia Boldyreff, the chair of the OSSG

Support for Women in STEMM

• Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine• The lack of women in these vital areas is being addressed effort at

international (UNICEF), European (EU), and national (UK) levels.• Professional Societies have a key role to play and many have made

special provision for supporting women and girls addressing the need for a gender balance and diversity: IOP, The Royal Society, the BCS...

BCS Initiatives

• BCSWomen Specialist Group since 2001• Grew from London BCSWomen

in 1998• Founded by Dr Sue Black

• Women in IT Scorecard• Unconscious Bias Training • Women in IT Calendars and e-

book• BCSWomen Appathon June 2015

Overcoming Barriers

• Monitoring and reporting• Explicit policies and codes of conduct. Example: @TwitterOSS

community• Positive action• Diversity should be the concern of all members and be supported by

all. Example: #He4She Campaign on Twitter

Why an OSSG CoC?

• The BCS Code of Conduct is for members and does not cover participants at events who may not be members of the BCS.• It gives an explicit signal to all that we are truly an open and inclusive

community within the BCS and to those groups we share events with.• By agreeing to adopt the OSSG CoC, members can demonstrate that

their support for addressing the unconscious bias and lack of diversity which currently exists with the IT profession.

Proposed OSSG Code of Conduct

• Available at https://github.com/cboldyreff/confcodeofconduct.com/blob/confcodeofconduct.com/index-bcs-ossg.html/index.html• The Quick Version: The BCS OSSG is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone attending our events, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Twitter and other online media. Event participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event at the discretion of the event organisers.

Next Steps

• Raise awareness• Poll of OSSG members• Agree final form of an OSSG CoC• Promote the CoC and monitoring effects of having a CoC