| |||||||||||||
FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free SoftwareFSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free SoftwarePosted Aug 25, 2009 14:21 UTC (Tue) by DOT (subscriber, #58786)In reply to: FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software by mjg59 Parent article: FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software
I think gender disparity in free software is definitely a symptom of a problem. The free software culture does not usually have a code of conduct, so as long as you provide code, nobody will care what kind of awful person you really are. Except that some people do care. Those will not feel welcome. My guess is that many women and some men are put off by the anti-social, sexist, insulting, and downright hostile behavior of a minority of the free software community.
(Log in to post comments)
FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software Posted Aug 26, 2009 7:24 UTC (Wed) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link]
I think is bigger than that. Women just aren't (as a whole) attracted to cutting edge development, software or hardware, open or proprietary. I've worked my share of startups and the women never (none of the few) put up the 60 plus hour weeks the dev guys did. Also, we never had a highly technical female applicant. We had a technical writer come in once, and she could sense our work hours and wasn't interested (understandably). The environments I've worked in were genuinely welcoming (as opposed to "Cool, we'll have a girl around") but there aren't many women in the field, at least in the settings I've been in, with high levels of skill and drive.
Certainly there are exceptions. Mary Lou Jepsen comes to mind. Lots of skill, lots of drive.
I did some temp work a couple years ago and there was a college age woman debating whether to go into software or something else, and everyone there (guys) were encouraging her to go into software. They weren't looking for eye candy. They (like me) welcome some diversity in the field.
I'm not a scientific sample, and am curious how others' experience with startups relates to mine.
FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software Posted Aug 26, 2009 13:43 UTC (Wed) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]
I've seen women driven to do cutting edge work in other fields. Neuroscience, genetic research, surgery techniques. I believe their nonpresence in certain corners of software is symptomatic of a problem. If you wish to rationalise that, I cannot stop you.
FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software Posted Aug 26, 2009 19:20 UTC (Wed) by maco (guest, #53641) [Link]
Yeah, the second shift presents some problems. Guys can get away with 60-hour weeks if they just make their wives / girlfriends do all the housework.
FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software Posted Aug 27, 2009 8:07 UTC (Thu) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link]
...other than some of those guys didn't have a woman in their life, or roommates. I never visited their dwellings to see how clean they were, but I have guesses.
|
|||||||||||||