On Feb 6, 2013, at 7:54 PM, Jacinta Richardson <jar...@perltraining.com.au> wrote: > > I don't think that Perl's decline in popularity is all that related to why > Perl has too few women in its communities. Over time, my training classes > have probably averaged 25-30% women (which is on-par with women's > representation in IT in business). Skud's survey (years ago) suggested 6% > women (which is 3 times higher than women's representation in open source for > pleasure, although the survey may have been answered by people who only > worked in open source for work). I think Perl has too few women in its > communities for almost all the same reasons that too few women are involved > in open source for pleasure, and they're well documented elsewhere. That is, > this isn't a Perl problem, but a wider problem. All we can do is promote > (haha) the strengths of our community and treat our newcomers well.
I knew that anecdote would take this in the wrong direction, but I couldn't resist as it was a truly amusing moment and, at the same time, a revelation of human nature. You're right, it's not just a Perl problem, but we wouldn't be here 10+ years later talking about the same problems with the same people if the issue was solely a technical one. I think numbers, percentages, or the generally nice boys in the close community that we are familiar with (I did marry one...) may be misleading not only because there's plenty of words spent on the subject, probably more from men than women, but if we are leaving our own wishful thinking behind, a world where sexism is no longer an issue, a company like GoDaddy would be out of business overnight (for those outside of the US, see YouTube for GoDaddy commercials...QED). Words and documented lists of reasons why don't appear to be very effective. It's an issue, but that it's still an issue that gets the soft bokeh of a lovely leica 50mm lens in low light means there's a lot of other things that don't see the crisp light of midday. I spent a year in Switzerland which was like stepping into a German version of "Mad Men" set in the modern world without mid-century modern hipness, but with all the sexism still intact and overtly enforced. It was an interesting experience in how everything can look so similar as long as you don't challenge the status quo...and don't flush your toilet after 10pm or before 6am. :) So, to bring it back to what I was originally getting at...questions and words are only useful if the answers are more than just the lies we tell ourselves and others because it's what we and others want to hear. In the words of Dr. House, "Everybody lies." e.
