We’ve been listening to the same voices for far too long.

We often use the phrase "women and people of color" as shorthand to include the various racial, ethnic, and gender groups that have often been excluded from our field. We know that each group has unique experiences, challenges, and inequities. And we recognize that women of color have been historically excluded for reasons of both race and gender, compounding the inequity they experience.

So while you'll hear us say “women and people of color” as shorthand, we don't lump them together in our work or internal processes. We look at each speaker’s combined race/ ethnicity and gender, and, in our scoring algorithm, we specifically account for the double discrimination faced by women of color.

But what about other historically excluded identities?

We know there are a variety of groups our industry has historically ignored and/ or silenced, including (but definitely not limited to) the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, young people, immigrants, and neurodivergent folks. We would love to see financial services events and media (and our companies!) be inclusive across all axes of diversity. As Choir grows, we hope to build additional tools with these groups in mind.

But aren’t you discriminating against white men? Is this reverse discrimination?

In an industry that is currently made up of predominantly white men, we are driving a more equitable selection process for speakers, and helping to make the pool of potential speakers more diverse and representative. Both conferences and the industry at large benefit from hearing from a wider variety of business leaders.