I've never tried to hide it, although the thought crossed my mind.
I've often wondered why there aren't more women around here, but I'm used to it. At least I don't have to wait in line for the bathroom at conferences.
I am a big corporation's employee (IBM), not an individual contributor.
I've been accused of being a geek, however, in my defense, I always say: "you think I'M a geek, you should meet my friends at Apache.".
Seriously, the article does make some good points. I think there is some merit to the suggestion that women are less likely to spend their free time hacking on the computer at home, and they don't come from the gaming culture.
However, I would like to offer my own theory as to why women are not as active in Open Source communities as they are in other computer science jobs. My theory has to do with women's aversion to speaking up in public, which is an essential aspect of open source participation. It's been documented (don't ask me when or where) that in a meeting with both men and women, the men will speak up and the women will not (obviously there are always exceptions). If the room only contains women, the women will speak up. This is also relevant to classroom participation among girls in school. I think this may have to do with a fear of ridicule, but I'm no expert.
I think that treating everyone with respect is the key to encouraging participation among all population groups. Noone, male or female, should ever be ridiculed or humiliated in public, on a mailing list, no matter how stupid or ridiculous the post (including this one :-)).
It's been my experience that this is generally the case. Off topic posts or seemingly stupid questions, are usually handled patiently. However, I have also seen some unecessary and unfortunate remarks made on mailing lists. My observation has been that this occurs between folks who have some history together. Nevertheless, a new person might get the impression that they will be subjected to similar unpleasantness if they post, and may well choose to merely lurk. You have to have a pretty thick skin to jump into the fray.
Conclusion? Just play nice.
Respectfully, Julie MacNaught [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brian Behlendorf wrote:
Use www.bugmenot.com if you need a password.
Comments? Is there anything the community thinks we could do to address the situation?
Brian
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 14:09:41 -0400 From: Greg Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Open Source, Cold Shoulder
Hello everyone. I'm very pleased to announce that an article Michelle Levesque and I wrote about why so few women get involved in open source computing, and what that reveals about open source's weaknesses, is now on-line at:
http://www.sdmagazine.com/documents/sdm0411b/
You may have to register to view it, but registration is free.
Thanks, Greg Wilson
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