Calling all women who work within the Open Source Community
Right I am hoping to organise a small working group to take part during the IOTC. Very informal and just a small get together. So far I’ve one speaker signed up to take part in the event, thanks to Noirin Shirley. But it does beg the question as to why there are not others taking part. Is it because there are not that many women in Open Source or they don’t want to present, take part or don’t know enough but want to learn more.
Many women took part at the GGD held by Martha in February and I know more of them found the same thing happening. When you are looking for someone to go to an event with you as let’s be honest not everyone likes to or wants to turn up to an event on their own, take part in speaking or just in discussion groups, you don’t know where to look.
What I have found is that there is even fewer women in the OS community and I would like to get a list of contacts or people that would attend a short discussion group who will hopefully be attending the IOTC. Also if anyone wants to present, please let me know!
or answer my question as to Why this happens………. lack of women in Open Source
May 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I’m arraning some influencer dinners for BT to get Open Source people together (flying them in to the UK). Perhaps I could get them to sponsor a dinner in Dublin. Let me know if I can do anything to help.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
If you would like us to we can put the details up on Girly Geekdom for you? And you can ask Martha to pop the info up on Ireland GGD site, I’m sure she would be happy to do that…
I’m guessing you have her e-mail address… if not then just send me a mail and I’ll do you an intro.
Sarah
May 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Thanks Sarah I dropped Martha a line, but up on the Girly Geekdom would be great thanks
May 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Paul you’re a star! I’ll get back to you on this! Thanks
May 19th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Lack of women in Open Source - some unstructured ranting which a number of people will not like.
First of all, there is a question of simple mathematics. IT generally is unbalanced in terms of male/female numbers. The Open Source community is a small subset of many IT possibilities and therefore it is predictable that there are few women involved. Reasons for that are many and deep rooted. Career advice in schools in Ireland for pretty much any career, let alone IT is piss poor IMO. Why would anyone, male or female chose IT as a career when they know nothing about it and the many different possibilities involved?
However, I don’t think it is simply a matter of going into schools and preaching that IT equals easy megabucks, as was done for the first and second booms because frankly, if you’re not interested in technology and challenge, and not smart enough to get good, it is hard work, the hours suck, often with poor reward and potential poor job satisfaction. Courses fill up the market with low quality graduates or have lots of dropouts and the image of IT as a career suffers further. (For anyone thinking ‘but I didn’t go to college, and I’m a kick-ass coder/admin/whatever - yes, this isn’t about *you*. You’ve proved you can do it without needing a push onto that first step).
The ‘great idea’ that normally comes up now is role models. Women need role models to get into IT so we need women in IT to talk to them, right? Here’s a newsflash. Women can have male role models. In fact, it is horribly sexist to think that a girl choosing her subjects for the Leaving Cert or whatever will only do what another woman tells her, and will discount the opinion and experiences of a man. Also, instead of asking why women don’t do IT, ask why guys do. Our brains are not wired that differently and positive reasons from one group could well apply to another. Do guys go into IT because of role models, or because of exposure to and interest in the topic? Why one tactic for one set, and another for a different one?
Now, another thought. I know of quite a few women in IT (myself included) who will run a mile from this type of event, finding the ‘all girls together’ vibe cringeworthy, especially if, as sometimes happens, it is accompanied by an anti-guy thing. We work with guys daily in an atmosphere of mutual professional respect. We consider ourselves engineers, not ‘women engineers’. We do not like the idea of special treatment. It gives us the creeps, and puts women in Open Source in a position that reminds us of cheerleaders or groupies, rather than being core members of a team. We don’t want that. We just want to get on with being nerds, thanks.
So, without making a big song and dance, how can women feel more welcome at Open Source events? Simple. Make sure there is an overall welcoming and respectful attitude for all participants, male and female. If one gets a gentler intro than the other, that is setting up divisions based on some unpleasant assumptions in the first place. Special treatment sows doubts in the minds of those who are prone to discriminate IME.
Hopefully that lot will provoke some thoughts. Some of these may well be that you think I’m talking bullshit, but I’m simply describing what has worked for me for the last 8 years or so.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Cheers Ann, I appreciate the feedback. Just one thing. While you and I may feel more comfortable with going to an event on our own some people aren’t and like knowing someone to go with. It could be a bloke not necessarily a woman also, but in some cases it’s just plain nice to go nerd it up and have a chin wag afterwards.
So I guess it’s just a case of trying to find a balance.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:24 am
[...] Laura is looking for girls who work in Open Source to get in touch. She wants to build out a community. Get in touch. Building communities is a great thing. Who knows where the next opportunity is? Everyone ought to stand up and do their bit to build out, whether it be a group of gardeners to swap war stories or parents looking for peer support during the Teenage Years. Or Open Source girlies. Talk to Laura, if you’re interested. [...]
May 20th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Nerding it up - I like that phrase. However, how do people learn in the first place that nerding is something they might find fun? How do they make sure they have the knowledge and skills to be able to hold their own in the chinwag afterwards, or if they can’t, how can they get into a position where they can?