On Mon, Feb 07, 2000 at 07:46:43AM -0500 or thereabouts, Bad Mojo wrote:
> On Sun, 6 Feb 2000, curious wrote:
> > http://freshmeat.net/news/2000/02/05/949813140.html
>
> Wow, I couldn't seem to get away from this article all weekend. Every
> place I went had a link to it. Not that I was avoiding it but I finally
> found some time to read it. And I have one question.
I think I've seen earlier drafts of it and said that I thought it was
good then, but I'll add my agreement that it's well worth reading. I
enjoyed it a lot. I have quibbles with some of it, but I think there's
some really valid points in there.
> In the third section about integrating women as they are into hackerdom as
> they are, I suspect this is allready happening. Or has happened and is
> still going on. But this part got me thinking ...
>
> "Female hackers (for some definition of hacker which is not necessarily
> tied to "hard" projects) do exist. I know several of them. However, the
> geek/hacker community doesn't seem to notice or acknowledge them. I'm not
> saying this out of a sense of immature pique at having been overlooked,
> but in response to numerous articles on Slashdot and other fora saying, in
> effect, "Where are the female geeks?" Every time this occurs, numerous
> female geeks and hackers say "Here we are!" and, largely, get ignored or
> forgotten by the next time the question is raised."
>
> Maybe we should stop asking `Where are the female geeks?' Is it too early
> in the new Open Source/Linux/whatever movement to be taking a tally and
> trying to fix something that might be slowly fixing itself allready? I
Ah, but is it fixing itself, or are a few people finally seeing fruit
in their efforts to encourage other women to keep trying? I don't think
it's so fixed that it's not worth hastening the process a little. (Um.
Baaad sentence.)
I think it's worth pushing this, myself. My husband attended the
LinuxWorld Expo in New York last week, and he's used to my commenting
on the lack of women when I attend these things. I wasn't at it, but
demanded details when he returned. He thought there were more women
attending (out of interest rather than being "booth babes") than
there had been at previous ones.
However, I've seen the photos of the crowds there, and it's entirely
possible to find pictures where not a single woman is visible on them.
Whether women are too bothered about attending the big expos is a
question that came up on this list before, and I don't think there
was any conclusion beyond "Perhaps we aren't so interested in expos
and big events".
Also, it's not just we who ask "Where are the other women?" I must
admit that Linuxchix tells me where a lot of us are :) Loads of
people notice it, and numerous magazines run stories about it when
they're short of news. I do suspect it's a filler thing, but they
also know they'll get loads of banner ad hits, too, from all the
replies and rows that follow such a headline. I'm sure I can remember
at least three "Ask Slashdot"s on it, and I'll bet they link to
the freshmeat article, and we'll have exactly the same "I'm a woman
and there's no prejudice; I hate whiny women" replies moderated to
5 and "My experience of sexism" lurking down at 0 or 1. If you're
really lucky, you'll get marked down as flamebait for daring to
suggest that hackers can be as exclusionary as any other group.
Oh yes: eally enjoyed Laurel's (? -- sorry, lost attribution) article
about the game development in the same thread, too.
Telsa
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
