Apple brought more women to the front at WWDC this year. But are the numbers good enough?

Apple's annual developer's conference at San Jose saw a lot of new announcements by the tech giant. From a new, updated Siri to iOS 12, tech detox to its focus on privacy and health, Apple covered it all.

But what it also did, was make a point with its presenters. At a time when conversations around pay parity and the lack of women in the workforce, specially tech, have taken centrestage, the WWDC saw women executives at the front.

The Cupertino giant faced criticism last year after the event stage was dominated by almost exclusively white men. According to reports, the approximate speaking time for men versus women, and gender representation in 2017 was worse than the two years before that. In 2017, women just spoke for approx. 9 minutes at the conference, while men contributed to the other 117 minutes.


At WWDC 2016, women got 7 per cent of the speaking time, and in 2015, they got 12 per cent.

Even at Apple's 2017 September event, only one woman took to the stage during the 2-hour long presentation.

Apple, along with other tech giants, has long faced criticism over diversity at its events. However, it seems like the iPhone-maker was trying to change this at this year's conference.

While the major part of the presentation saw CEO Tim Cook and Craig Federighi, Senior VP, Apple on stage, they did make way for the women too.

While one of the 'Shortcuts' project leader Kim Beverett presented the new feature, after Federighi introduced it, another Apple exec Sarah spoke about the updates to the apps. Another female exec on stage was Kelsey Peterson, who is one of the managers of the Messages and Animoji features at Apple.

Another exec, Julz Arney, gave a demo for the WatchOS all the while riding a stationery bike. This move seemed to have irked some social media users.

The updates to Apple TV were introudced by the segment's lead designer Jennifer Folse. While Ann Thai, the Product Marketing Manager for the App Store, exhibited the fresh look and new updates in the brand new Mac App Store.

This year definitely saw more women than last year's 3. But at a time when inclusion is the need of the hour, and other tech events still go on without any women representation (CES 2018 didn't feature any women speakers for the second year in a row), will this number suffice?