On March 25, 2004 04:12 pm, Monique Y. Herman wrote: > On 2004-03-25, s. keeling penned: > > Incoming from Monique Y. Herman: > >> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/ > > > > That one elicited about the loudest flamefest I've ever seen, in > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you can find that thread in their archives, and > > stand to wade through it all, you might find your answers there. > > I've been slowly wading through it. I honestly didn't find anything > offensive in the document. I guess I should re-read it after I finish > reading the flameage.
Reading this article I found it not so much offensive as just lacking some important basic facts. For example, in the section about why there are so few women in technology, there are several reasons listed, most of them placing the blame on men in some way. I'm not saying that these reasons are not valid, but I believe there is a bigger reason. Women (in general) are just not that interested in technology and computers. My university has programs to encourage women to enroll in engineering and women tend to be favoured for jobs here but still the percentage of female engineering students is less than 5%. Why is that? No idea but certainly not because they are being "driven out". Every effort is made to attract them to engineering and CS but there are just not that many interested. Another thing that bothers me in the article is when specific posts on mailing lists are pointed out which contain sexist remarks and used to make generalizations about that community. The fact is that every community has assholes. This is the consequence of a largely unmoderated medium and really can't be avoided. my 2 canadian cents ~leo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]