

Why women don't FLOSS - TheBigRedDog
http://blog.milkingthegnu.org/2008/06/why-women-dont-floss.html

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Prrometheus
We shall not rest until every subgroup of the population has perfectly
proportional representation in every possible activity!

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curiousgeorge
In my experience women are less involved in FLOSS because they gravitate more
heavily towards institutional jobs where IT staff learn whatever systems the
company uses. FLOSS expertise is concentrated in people who use software
independently before they use it organizationally.

This is not intended as a sexist post or a comment on differences in
capabilities between genders. I've seen capable women who find it harder to
get employment than their male peers, and think there are sexist pressures in
the workforce that make it a lot harder for women to work as independent
consultants. So I know a lot less who worry about Hadoop.

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yummyfajitas
Hmm, I'm not buying all their arguments. From the article: "However, the
extent of the problem is not funny...Almost half of the women have been asked
out. "

On college campuses, probably 80-90% of women have been asked out. Does that
prevent women from going to college?

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TheBigRedDog
Yes but there are major differences: \- In college you're not interacting only
through the Internet \- Even though you might be popular, you're not going to
have that many guys asking you out. \- But the main thing is at work, or when
practicing your hobby, you're not expecting to be bugged very often by people
probing for a relationship...

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carterschonwald
"But the main thing is at work, or when practicing your hobby, you're not
expecting to be bugged very often by people probing for a relationship..."

Thats silly, for many folks (for good or for ill), it is through work or their
hobbies that they meet new people.

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TheBigRedDog
Not quite. You're socializing (including taking on new hobbies) to meet new
people, yes. But you're not passioned by your hobby (say History or computers)
_because_ you want to socialize ... And if you're into say long distance
running that's not to have all the guys -who otherwise might have run faster-
start slowing down just to look at your butt ...

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Tichy
I take issues with some parts of the article:

"She presents the following reasons: CS jobs are clean jobs and they don't
require much physical force. It's a typical tertiary activity that can even be
conducted while staying home!

What's interesting is that the arguments used are well, sexist"

Huh? Can somebody explain what is sexist about those arguments? Because it
implies that women might have less physical strength than men on average? Is
there a debate about that?

"women, who normally still assume a disproportionate amount of domestic
responsibilities."

Is that true? If so, why, and maybe that would be a more suitable starting
place for striving for equality?

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TheBigRedDog
She said that in the context of "There is nothing masculine/male about CS ..."
and since gender was the subject of the dscussion you don't need a huge leap
of faith to accept the comment as sexist.

As to the broom work, yes it's suitable t there, although not the subject of
the post...

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Tichy
So why is it sexist to say "there is nothing masculine about CS"? If you say
the opposite, surely it would be sexist, because it would imply that women are
not made for CS. But saying "CS is not masculine" seems not sexist to me.
Except that the whole question is rather uninteresting ("masculine" or not -
who cares?).

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cousin_it
It's ironic that asking a woman out is not OK, but huge flamewars between men
in the F/OSS community are OK.

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BrandonM
Perhaps this will sound sexist, but in my experience, women are more critical
than men, especially towards other women. And even if a particular woman does
not exhibit this quality, she still expects it from others, both men and
women. I'm not saying this is an inborn trait (although some aspects of it
could be), but I have definitely observed it when I'm out with girl friends of
mine.

Could it not be, then, that when considering the prospect of writing software
and releasing it for scrutiny, an expectation of excessive criticism prevents
many women from doing so?

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AndyKelley
Men and women are different; they think and act differently. I think we
shouldn't make such a big deal about it. Just let the natural forces of it
play out. Sexism will only prevent a woman from achieving her dreams if she
lets it. Sometimes I think that people complain politically out of
incompetence in the real world to just deal with it and succeed.

