There are tons of articles about women and science since more than 20 years ago I will recomend a look to Longino (1987) [1]. [1] http://www.jstor.org/pss/3810122
On Nov 16, 2009, at 9:58 PM, Landon Blake wrote: > Tyler, > > I understand your wife's perspective completely. It seems reasonable to > conclude that there are fewer women involved in OSGeo projects because > there are fewer women involved in open source computing to begin with. > > A possible response to your wife's argument is that our society tends to > condition women for certain types of roles, and that we steer them away > from careers in math or science. I don't know if this is true, but I can > tell you I see the same lack of women in surveying and engineering as I > do in software development. I don't have any daughters, but I have a > couple nieces. It seems my younger niece, who is currently a freshman in > high school, doesn't get much encouragement to think about math and > science careers, although I think she has the brains for it. Her older > brother, who is a senior in high school, is being encouraged to pursue a > degree in mechanical engineering or a technical job in the United States > Air Force. > > This in just one small example of what may be a larger trend in the way > we view our children, at least in the United States. > > If our society is guilty of this bias in the way we raise, train, and > teach our daughters, then some conscious effort to correct this bias is > probably not inappropriate. > > I'm sure your wife and others have a response to this argument as well. > If nothing else, I think this is a good conversation to have. > > Hopefully I did not just open Pandora's Box. :] > > Landon > Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268 > Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658 > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tyler Mitchell [mailto:tmitchell.os...@shaw.ca] > Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 12:51 PM > To: Landon Blake > Cc: OSGeo Discussions > Subject: Re: RE: RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] new: OSGeo women mailing list > >> Maybe my statement was misunderstood? >> >> I meant to say that members of the open source project discussed >> what we >> might do to encourage the participation of more women in the >> project. I >> think there was recognition across the board that the project >> would have >> benefited from more diversity. >> >> I'm wondering if efforts to get young women more involved in >> math and >> science could be combined with encouraging them to try >> volunteering with >> an OSGeo project? > > Hi Landon, > > I understand, please bear with me, I'm probably the unclear one. Some > of the women I know very well (one in particular :) tend to find it a > wee bit condescending to be treated like a "special" group when in > reality they are fully capable of joining projects they are interested > in. > > Speaking of open source software, if fewer women are involved I just > assume they aren't as interested.. just like any other group of people > that make their own choices regardless of what others think would be > optimal. > > It's not a big deal to me, but I've been briefed on the subject from my > wife's angle regularly over the years so I feel compelled to pass it on > :-) > > Best wishes, > Tyler > > > Warning: > Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects > including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the > intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, > distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you > have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
