Network Working Group M. Knodel Internet-Draft Center for Democracy and Technology Intended status: Informational 17 January 2024 Expires: 20 July 2024 Gender Representation in the IETF Nominating Committees draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-01 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/. 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 20 July 2024. Knodel Expires 20 July 2024 [Page 1] Internet-Draft nomcom-gender-representation January 2024 Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2024 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. Knodel Expires 20 July 2024 [Page 2] Internet-Draft nomcom-gender-representation January 2024 To address gender representation in the IETF nomcom, at a minimum we can 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. If there does not exist one gender minority volunteer in a given year's pool, this rule is withdrawn and the community should be notified of this reason that all ten nomcom volunteers will have the same gender that year. 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, . [RFC9389] Duke, M., "Nominating Committee Eligibility", BCP 10, RFC 9389, DOI 10.17487/RFC9389, April 2023, . Knodel Expires 20 July 2024 [Page 3] Internet-Draft nomcom-gender-representation January 2024 [Vervoe] Vervo, "Gender Discrimination in Hiring Practices", 2022, . 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: mknodel@cdt.org Knodel Expires 20 July 2024 [Page 4]