Some ways to do it
Some ways to do it
Posted Jul 29, 2009 22:44 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (guest, #15091)In reply to: As part of the group by fuhchee
Parent article: OSCON keynote: Standing out in the crowd
How about the helpful "I think women are approaching the wrong problem, they should ignore or ridicule the bullies"? Or the gentlemanly "Hey, I wasn't aware of the problem but it may be true, I'll be on the lookout and if necessary try to defend any women from the bullies"? Or the more sensitive "Sorry, I didn't know that women felt like that, I will try to pay some more attention". Or even the skeptic macho "I doubt that is the case, but if I see anyone bullying a woman they will learn to fear my fists!" Or you could just listen and suspend judgement.
But please, don't just negate the kind of problem which you would never notice unless you were actively looking for it (and even so). Also, we men don't need to feel guilty about it by default; we are just part of the inertia. But we can fight it. To me it's helpful to remember that the world's greatest hacker is a woman.