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The biggest tech conference has some of the same old problems with women
Jan 11, 2019

The biggest tech conference has some of the same old problems with women

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Today is the last day of the huge Las Vegas tech conference CES, and it's ending on a mixed note when it comes to gender and diversity. On one hand, the Consumer Technology Association, which puts on CES, announced a $10 million fund at the show to support women and minority tech founders. On the other hand, the CTA gave an innovation award to a company that makes a robotic vibrator for women, but then, before the show even started, took it away and banned the company and its product from the show floor (while sex tech like augmented reality porn did show up on the CES floor.) And CES still has no explicit ban on what are commonly called booth babes, models in skimpy clothes hired to draw attention to company booths at the event. Molly Wood talks with Heather Kelly, a tech reporter at CNN. Kelly was also at CES and says progress is just ... slow. (1/11/2019)

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CES 2019 attendees watch an AEE drone demonstration at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Today is the last day of the huge Las Vegas tech conference CES, and it’s ending on a mixed note when it comes to gender and diversity. On one hand, the Consumer Technology Association, which puts on CES, announced a $10 million fund at the show to support women and minority tech founders. On the other hand, the CTA gave an innovation award to a company that makes a robotic vibrator for women, but then, before the show even started, took it away and banned the company and its product from the show floor (while sex tech like augmented reality porn did show up on the CES floor.) And CES still has no explicit ban on what are commonly called booth babes, models in skimpy clothes hired to draw attention to company booths at the event. Molly Wood talks with Heather Kelly, a tech reporter at CNN. Kelly was also at CES and says progress is just … slow. (1/11/2019)

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