Mint Editor-in-chief Sruthijit today took to Twitter to apologise for not having enough women panelists and speakers for the annual banking conclave organised by the publication.
We’re sorry. pic.twitter.com/q5K1SFRiAo
— SK (@sruthijith) December 16, 2021
In a tweet, he apologised for not working hard enough to bring in gender diversity amongst the panelists. He said that the publication had sent out an invite to several women speakers during the course of curation but they had declined. “We should have dug in our heels and worked harder to find other available women speakers,” the statement read.
He stated that Mint recognises how not having women on a panel would have caused hurt and apologised. He also clarified that the partners and sponsors at such events had no role in curation of speakers.
Often, panels which have only men as speakers are referred to as ‘manels’.
The apology came after many people took to Twitter to raise objection to not having a single woman speaker in the panelists on Banking conclave despite many women being in top managerial positions in leading banks across India.
Surprising to see that @livemint cannot find a single female speaker for banking community @ambimgp @jasuja @rajeshkjindal @iRadhikaGupta @debjani_ghosh_ @KiranManral pic.twitter.com/QX9iU6qJhE
— Deepali Naair (@deepalinaair) December 14, 2021
Women also expressed disappointment at how despite having the union finance ministry being headed by a woman, Mint could not find a single woman as a speaker at the conclave.
the organizers have taken the feedback positively and expanded the speaker choice to be inclusive 👏 @livemint @htTweets @HtBrandStudio pic.twitter.com/4rheaV6k0j
— Rajesh Kumar Jindal (@rajeshkjindal) December 16, 2021
On second day, however, Mint did seem to have women speakers on the panel.
