Women in Free Software, by Fernanda G. Weiden (Groklaw) [LWN.net]

Women in Free Software, by Fernanda G. Weiden (Groklaw)

Posted Sep 12, 2005 20:27 UTC (Mon) by thomask (guest, #17985)
Parent article: Women in Free Software, by Fernanda G. Weiden (Groklaw)

"a community in which more than 50% of the total world population doesn't participate"

Honestly. About 99% of the world population doesn't participate in the OSS "arena". Or rather about 1% does.

Maybe this isn't correct: remember that "participation" isn't limited to development. People who use the stuff are mostly doing us a favour, especially if they submit bug-reports. Who says women aren't _using_ free software? While I agree that chaps should be welcoming to female developers, I'd always thought that software development was something that men did much more of than women; whether proprietary or free. It's one of those old social phenomena, in the same way that we don't get loads of female politicians. Can anyone here imagine either the political arena or the OSS arena being dominated by the fairer sex?

They're welcome to it though.

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Women in Free Software, by Fernanda G. Weiden (Groklaw)

Posted Sep 12, 2005 22:08 UTC (Mon) by NightMonkey (subscriber, #23051) [Link]

"Can anyone here imagine either the political arena or the OSS arena being dominated by the fairer sex?"

Yes. It might actually be a bit better than what we've got, especially in the political arena.

Oh, and many women like their gender group to be referred to as "women," in my experience.