The latest take on a very old theme

I’ve been mulling over this post by Tara Hunt, and though it is a week old, I want to draw attention to it.

Here’s the story: Tara takes the lead in organizing a tech conference, and in the main stream press story about it, Tara is ignored and unnamed while top billing goes to co-organizer Chris Messina. Most women in technical professions can tell any number of similar tales. This is one of the great mysteries of high tech: journalists periodically comment on (and even lament) the absence of women in tech, while simultaneously acting as if the prominent tech women in the near vicinity have all donned cloaks of invisibility.

All I can say is that this is just the latest version of a very old story. It is a well-honored tradition for those who record events to ignore the contributions of activist women. Were this not so, we’d be celebrating Alice Paul Day every January 11th.