Jimmy, thank you for sharing your experiences. It's funny, mine are a little similar, except that I'm the one grabbing the keyboard! It's not because you're the man, it's just because you're the one who knows what to do in this situation.
The separateness of conversation over a meal that you mention is just because of different interests. When my husband talks work with his colleagues, I'll talk about whatever with their wives. We don't share their work. Often we have little in common other than babies and housekeeping (sadly they are never into computers, either.) A LUG is a different matter! We are all there to share a common interest. That link that Izabel provided is an excellent resource, and includes some sound analysis of the issues, as well as suggestions for affirmative action. That you want to encourage women in Linux is wonderful, but I don't think a group is really the way to go. It just encourages separation. >From the participants on these lists it's clear that openSUSE has a focus of building an inclusive community, and that, I think, is the way to go. It's not a 'neat and tidy' solution - you can't set a page up and it's all done. It's an ongoing commitment. Standing up to abusive or exclusive behavior can be a little confronting at times. I don't feel 'geeky' language or jargon is a particular problem for women - it can be for any non-computer people. Sometimes jargon is a useful, efficient way of communicating. And sometimes we like being part of the 'in crowd' and using our secret language! There is maybe a cultural difference between the programmer/developer group and the non technical general user/community group, and that could be alienating to both women and men who don't feel they are knowledgeable enough to be involved (when of course they can contribute in many other ways). warmest wishes Helen On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 5:38 AM, Jimmy Pierre <jimmypierre.rouen.fra...@gmail.com> wrote: > I totally agree with you about women being a minority in Linux. Should we men > try to talk less in Geek language for starters? OK, we are busy, and when our > wives ask for something, what I tend to do is not giving the attention that > she deserves, but attempting to get hold of the keyboard or mouse and solve > whatever the problem was. I do the same with my sister, friends and > neighbours. Slap! <snip for brevity> > > I feel like buying them a domain name LinuxPourNousLesFemmes like the famous > cosmetics advert Stop! What am I doing right now? I am even choosing their > LUG name? Sorry! > > > Just my 2 cents. > > Best, > Jimmy -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscr...@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+h...@opensuse.org
