Active discrimination, or feeling oppressed?

Posted Jul 28, 2009 23:50 UTC (Tue) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: Active discrimination, or feeling oppressed? by njs
Parent article: OSCON keynote: Standing out in the crowd

how much of the difference is different values and choices in what to do with their free time?

I suspect that you would see similar drops in hobby versions of male dominated careers (construction vs woodworking, auto-industry vs hotrods, etc)

just because there is a differing percentage doesn't mean that there's some grand conspiracy

in the case of opensource software there is less of a difference between day jobs and the hobby (to the point where for some people the day job _is_ the hobby), but it still boils down to what do people choose to do with their free time prior to getting involved with 'the community'

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Active discrimination, or feeling oppressed?

Posted Jul 29, 2009 1:59 UTC (Wed) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link] (3 responses)

Well, sure, that may be a factor. But it's hard to tell, isn't it, while we *know* that there's blatant sexism at play too? And this kind of explanation can itself be harmful: it's not testable; it doesn't suggest any useful course of action; and anyone who's looking for some way to ignore the real, demonstrable problems can (and does) take it as an excuse to throw up their hands and stop thinking. So, yeah, maybe in a perfect world the gender ratio in FOSS ends up being 40/60 or 50/50 or even 30/70, who knows -- but I don't think that should affect what we do here and now.

(And do you really want to point to hotrodding culture as a model for appropriate attitudes toward women?)

Active discrimination, or feeling oppressed?

Posted Jul 29, 2009 14:44 UTC (Wed) by NAR (subscriber, #1313) [Link] (2 responses)

while we *know* that there's blatant sexism at play too?

Do we really know? I accept that there's blatant sexism, but how can know it doesn't drive away males as well in the same ration as females?

Active discrimination, or feeling oppressed?

Posted Jul 29, 2009 19:52 UTC (Wed) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link]

Can you propose a plausible model for why sexism against women would drive away men in the same proportions?

Active discrimination, or feeling oppressed?

Posted Jul 29, 2009 22:13 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

If it drove away 90% of men the mailing lists and user groups would be
exploding. The very suggestion is utterly ludicrous.