Getting in touch with the feminine side of open source (NewsForge) [LWN.net]

Getting in touch with the feminine side of open source (NewsForge)

Posted Aug 9, 2005 19:41 UTC (Tue) by amk (subscriber, #19)
In reply to: Getting in touch with the feminine side of open source (NewsForge) by thompsot
Parent article: Getting in touch with the feminine side of open source (NewsForge)

... but this article is not dealing with any discrimination, and the it clearly indicates that women are much more involved in OSS than in proprietary software.

The linked-to article says just the opposite: "they also discussed some negative aspects for the open source community's women, who reportedly have higher representation in the proprietary software world." (Emphasis mine.) So this states that women are less involved in OSS.

This matches my experience -- I've worked with one or more female programmers at all of my day jobs, but very rarely on OSS projects.

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Getting in touch with the feminine side of open source (NewsForge)

Posted Aug 9, 2005 22:58 UTC (Tue) by stephenjudd (subscriber, #3227) [Link]

Yes, I agree.

One of the few benefits of the modern corporate environment is institutional protection from harassment and a culture of respecting the sensibilities of others. (Imperfect etc I know, but it is there). It's not hard to see how a boorish and sexist online culture is repellent to women who would otherwise involve themselves.

In an environment with no deterrents to women -- derogatory remarks about women, unpleasant comeons, gratuitous flamage -- there may well still be more men, but I don't think we're even at that point.