women in floss

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”If you want to help, you can startby getting some coffee”

Christina Gratorp <christina@gratorp.se>

Nov 6, 2010

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<3 FLOSS

Me• Woman

• Transmode, Embedded software design

Involvement• Use, promote and teach FLOSS as much as I can

• Conferences

• Talks (like this one)

Computer world• Got my first own computer 1994 (age 13)

• Was introduced to FLOSS 2008 (age 27)

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wtf?! or: how to alienate women

”They [computers] are designed by men, they are aproduct of mens’ fantasy, and therefore we [women]are not interested in them and we can notunderstand them.”

Rigmor Robert (Amelia nr 1/95)

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• Ada Lovelace

- The first programmer.

• Grace Hopper

- Hopper wrote the first compiler, mother of COBOL

• Mary Allen Wilkes

- Computer programmer; First person to use a computer

in a private home and the first developer of an operating

system (LAP) for the first minicomputer (LINC)

• Adele Goldberg

- Goldberg is one of the designers and developers of

Smalltalk

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Why is this important?

Driving away women means driving awaycontributors. Both women and men.

(That is not good if you want free software to dominate the

world...)

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The hacker blindness

Hackers often describe their culture as gender andcolour blind.

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Let’s look at somenumbers

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Women in proprietary software (28%)

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Women in FLOSS (1.5%)

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Why are there so few women in FLOSS?

• Social reasons- Women are discouraged from technology...

... in childhood

... in media

... in social expectations

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Why are there so few women in FLOSS?

- Lack of confidence due to...

... social pressure

... lack of female technical role models

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Why are there so few women in FLOSS?

When girls and boys have access to computersmale female

Age of computer introduction (use) 12 14.5Age of getting your own computer 15 19

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But... these reasons apply to all women

getting into IT, not FLOSS in particular...

What is so special about FLOSS?

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Anonymity

Hiding behind a computer makes people dare tospeak of things they never would AFK.

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Competitive nature of floss

Flame wars are accepted within many FLOSSprojects as a key means of developing reputation

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The Einstein complex

There is a common believe that you have to besmarter than Einstein to contribute to FLOSS.

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OMG! A GRRL!

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Have you ever noticed sexism within theFLOSS community?

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Bad ideas

• ”Jokes”- If you can tell the joke in a room full of women,

including your mother, it is probably an ok joke. If youwouldn’t, don’t.

• Dates/Marriage proposals

• Doubting women’s intelligence/expertise

• Insults specific to females (that time of month etc...)

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Horror Stories

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A bad example

Dear Starla,At Bugtraq Security Systems we pride ourselfs in having a keeneye for young and upcoming talent. Specifically, core membersof our Research and Development team have expressedcontinously growing feelings of affection towards your person.Or, as one of our researchers put it: ”hehehe I’d like toresearch and develop that all night long :D:D:D”.What it boils down to is that we at BSS (Bugtraq SecuritySystems) would like to offer you.. Starla Pureheart.. prolificwarrior princess of the great Nuke Wars of 1997... a positionat Bugtraq Security Systems. Preferably on your knees.Love, Bugtraq Security Systems

PS: All kidding aside, get in touch with us Anna - we need a

token femme

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An awful example

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Death threats

• Nut launches death threats at Debian women

• The attack on Kathy Sierra

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mini HOWTO

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Invite them!

To change how many women are involved inFLOSS, we need to take action. Nothing willchange unless we change something...

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Be sensitive to discrimination

Take action when something happens. Silencemeans you agree with what is beingsaid/done/written...

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Value all contributions

• Documentation

• Testing

• Bug reports

• Using FLOSS

• Administation

• etc...• (and code)

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Assume girls know stuff

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Be friendly

Take a little extra time to direct people when theyask something, compared to RTFM.

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Make the first steps easier

- Better documentation

- Mentorship program

- Tag stuff in TODO list with beginner friendly

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A good example

Figure: GnomeLove - an initiative that aims to help peoplewho want to get started contributing to GNOME

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Another good example

”Catie, please contribute more often.I enjoy your comments and posts they are often plently moreinsightful than some of the half-arsed posts from people whohaven’t yet learnt when to keep their mouths shut. Inparticular, although I may not agree with your point of view, Ienjoyed reading the recent thread with jdub about GPL vsfreedom... :)Thanks for being a valued contributor to the list.

Dave”

SLUG mailing list, Sydney.

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What can womendo?

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Dealing with the Einstein complex

Remember... everyone was a n00b at some point.

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Dealing with BS

Figure: Grynet: -Ta ingen skit!

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There are other women out there, lookthem up!

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Be proud! FLOSS women rock!

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(Want the slides? Just let me know.)

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References and Further Reading

• http://www.flosspols.org

• http://geekfeminism.wikia.com

• http://linuxchix.org

• http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/

• http://women.debian.org

• http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00321.html

• http://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove

• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/03/debian death threats/

• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?blogid=19&entry id=14783

• http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/CouchDB talk