You know that feeling when you open an event page. You looked at the event description. All seem pretty interesting. Then you look at the panellists. All male apparently. Ugh, I’ll usually shrug and wonder why does it have to be that way?

Personally, in 2020, I don’t think this should even be the case anymore. We have so many good women leaders in Malaysia with the likes of Surina Shukri running the government’s digital economy agency and so on.

So I am happy to come across this list of 268 leading women in the Southeast Asian Startup ecosystem. Here, you can find women involved in startups ranging from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

Thanks again to Arnaud Bonzom, an angel investor and ecosystem builder in Asia for compiling the post.

Then there’s the ongoing debate on boycotting all-male panellists events, I know that there are still ongoing debates on whether boycotting is a good or bad idea is still a growing debate even around the world. As an organiser, it can be a challenge sourcing for qualified speakers or even panellists as some who may have agreed may even drop out at some point as the event date approaches.

I do see that the all-male panellist boycott is increasing over the years. I do feel that more people especially men should lead by example and take lead in boycotting events with no gender diversity.

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