Good one. We are also trying to get that representation (on public and private boards and experts committees) for our members in Africa.
Anna, Linuxchix Africa. ---------- Original Message ----------- From: Anne Østergaard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], debian-women@lists.debian.org, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 19:59:06 +0100 Subject: Women are joining the world of Free- and Open Source Software > Women are making there way into the information age and joining > the world of Free- and Open Source Software > > More women in Free (and all kinds of) software will lead to > democracy, more humanism and diversity in society. > > March 8th each year is an important date for making status of the > land winnings of the past and make an action plan for the future. > > In 2005 a group of women decided to hold a BOF, Birds Of A Feather, > making a presentation on how to get more women interested in joining > the Free Software Community at FLOS software events all over the world. > > During EuroOSCON, the Libre Software Meeting and now at FOSDEM, an > early and cold Sunday morning in February the room was stuffed with men > and women. The youngest girl was 1½ years old already at FOSDEM - trying > to make her voice heard. > > Hannah Wallach from the Debian Women Project explained about the > study that the EU Commission is having made by independent > university researchers. > > The independent report will be published in 1-2 months time and is > going to show that the percentage of women in Free - and Open Source > Software is as modest as about 1.5 %. > > I hope that the report initiated by the European Commission will > give some statistics from other sectors for comparison. > > In many other fields the situation is as imbalanced as it is the case > in the software business. Research, music and sports to mention a few > areas - religion not mentioned because no kind of software is a > religion. > > The good news is that we are taken action ourselves. The community is > going to identify the reasons why we have this situation. We in the > community have got the challenge to point to ways and means of changing > this imbalance. It is also very clear to me that we want to do so > because we do not want to miss a potential of more than 50% of all > the ideas in our innovation projects! > > I have heard that in Malaysia the women are in majority in the > ICT sector and that the government is worried and planning a program > to get more men involved. > > This shows us that it is circumstances in society that influence > our choices and not something that has to do with gender chromosomes. > > At the moment ICT decisions are made all over the globe and on > all levels both in governments and by businesses- most often without > females represented in the decision making bodies! > > It is therefore important that we make up a list by country of women > and men that are qualified to represent our case on public and > private boards and experts committees. > > In Norway there has to be at least 40% women represented in the > local government and the municipalities. Denmark has a similar proposal > on its way. > > I am sure that we do not want a virtual universe where the girls > are groupies and just sit there. Most men in the original hacker > culture have been living in an all male subculture for a long period > of time. Software is no longer a subculture, it is about > communication and big business on a global scale. ICT is changing > our ways of living, and rapidly too. > > Many men have discovered that it is actually very nice to come out in > the daylight once in a while, and meet other people that are not a > mirror of themselves. The cultural habits of the super nerds can not > be changed over night, and not if they are not willing to let others > in. > > The hacker culture does not exclude women, but we have to step > lightly and be careful. If we want to join the community a large > amount of patience, skills and humor will be a good ballast. > > The reward is that one can make many new friends - and the by product > is that one learns a lot. Enough to find out that there are in fact > no limits to what one can learn- your own capacity sets the pace. > > Happy hacking > > Anne ------- End of Original Message ------- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
