Thread by @marksbirch

This is terrible.

I also unfortunately know what Leigh is talking about. This does happen and I had something very similar happen in the Enterprise Sales Forum community.

Let me explain what happened...

https://twitter.com/hypatiadotca/status/1319037535486693376

I was expanded chapters across the country from my base in NYC. I had a friend who offered to host a Denver chapter in his office.

I jumped at the chance and put together a series of events and all the promotion to get members.

I flew out to Denver for the inaugural event and ran the fireside chat. Turnout was solid with about 40 attendees. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event.

Two things happened a week later. First I notice that all the women that attended dropped out of the Meetup group. Then a guy that attended messaged me. What he told me made my blood run cold.

Two of the men in attendance started hitting on the women during the networking time of the event. It was not subtle either.

I never noticed because I was neck deep in organizing and managing the event. I was clueless.

I reached out to the men to explain themselves. They flat out denied it. I also spoke to the women. It was clear in weaving together the events of the evening that the men were out of line.

I banned the men from the community. I apologized to the women. I did two more things.

I publically wrote about the incident with the overall community, being as transparent as possible without revealing names.

The second thing I did was work to make the community more welcoming and inclusive. That was the start of Women in Sales Month every October.

The idea was to put more women sales leaders on panels. That would bring more women out. It would create a cyclical effect that would equalize the ration of men and women at events.

In one year, attendance went from 10% women on average per event to over 40%.

And I continue to write and speak about this topic, and publically support other groups running women in sales events.

This is the only way to eliminate the persistent sexism and to push out the harrassers.