Tech’s big gadget show edges closer to gender equity

NEW YORK (AP) — Critics have been on the case of one of the tech industry’s largest trade shows for not including enough female speakers.

That seems to be changing this year at CES, the consumer-electronics show in Las Vegas. Last year, CES initially had no female keynote speakers, for what would have been the second year in a row.

But one of the event’s most outspoken critics, a group called GenderAvenger, recently awarded CES a “Gold Stamp of Approval” for a 2019 roster of keynote and “featured” speakers that the group says is 45 percent women — 60 percent of them women of color.

Leveling the playing field often means more than inviting female CEOs to speak. Attendance, for example, is still largely male, reflecting the gender imbalance of the broader tech industry.