This is wonderful news. From a press release I received from SecularWoman.org:

Atlanta, Georgia – July 12, 2012- On the eve of its two-week birthday, Secular Woman announced its first major conference travel grant initiative, pledging to help send at least 10 women to Skepticon 5 in Springfield, Missouri this November. Kim Rippere, president of the new national organization serving non-religious women, said, “Skepticon is a natural partner for Secular Woman’s first disbursement of travel grants. We’ll be able to help more women atheists and skeptics experience a major secular event, thanks to Skepticon’s free registration and its track record of high attendance and engaging speakers.”

Events sponsored by secular identity organizations have attracted criticism for male-dominated speaker rosters and other gender-related problems. Brandi Braschler, VP of Programs for Secular Woman, stated, “As part of our mission to increase the presence of non-religious women, Secular Woman will be partnering with Skepticon to provide travel grants to some of this year’s conference attendees”. Women speaking at Skepticon 5, to be held November 9-11, include student activist Jessica Ahlquist, blogger-author Greta Christina, podcaster Julia Galef, and Skeptic magazine editor-in-chief Deborah Hyde. First organized by college students in the fall of 2008, Skepticon has expanded from two speakers that first year to sixteen last fall. With 1,200 attendees, it was the second largest skeptic/atheist conference in the United States in 2011. Please visit www.SecularWoman.org/SkepticonGrants to contribute.

In addition to conference travel grants, Secular Woman will offer its members achievement awards, a registry of secular groups’ anti-harassment policies and other programming designed to add gender diversity to secular events and bring more nonbelieving women out of the closet and into active roles in the secular movement. Since its public debut June 28, Secular Woman has expanded from a four-person Board of Directors to more than two hundred members in five countries.

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Secular Woman is an educational non-profit organization whose mission is to amplify the voice, presence, and influence of non-religious women. For more information about Secular Woman visit: www.SecularWoman.org.

Skepticon 5 is the nation’s largest free conference on skepticism. For more information about Skepticon, visit: www.skepticon.org.