Man Continuously Interrupts Woman During SXSW Panel on Diversity

At a SXSW panel yesterday called How Innovation Happens, Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, US Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt discussed how an increased level of diversity and gender inclusivity is necessary to bring about breakthroughs in the tech sphere.

Which was ironic, and not just because the panel was all-white: at one point, an audience member—later identified as Judith Williams, Global Diversity and Talent Programs manager at Google—raised her hand to point out that Eric Schmidt had interrupted Megan Smith several times throughout the panel. According to PopSugar, Williams then asked Smith: “How do you feel about the unconscious bias that affects you and other women?”

The crowd cheered at the comment, and Smith talked about how we all have unconscious bias, but that it’s especially detrimental to women. She also mentioned that because of unconscious bias, men often appropriate the ideas of female counterparts and get all the credit.

At the unlikely venue of SXSW, which later that day hosted “The Tumblr Fuck Yeah Party sponsored by Entourage,” womankind was allowed a brief, tiny fist-pump.