* Colleen Hatfield <evilpig@gmail.com> [2004:12:16 09:41 -0600]: > IMO, the best way to do things is to stick to what we have in our FAQ: > ---------------------------- > We're not segregated. Debian Women is a subgroup of Debian that allows > anyone to join in and help. We consist of Debian developers, > contributors, and users. The purpose is to get women involved in all > aspects of Debian, and having obvious role models and a community > assists with that goal. > ---------------------------- > > Obviously not every newcomer is going to know to read the FAQ ;-D. > But I do think it pretty concisely addresses the community > demographics issue, as well as the point of the project, and would be > a good read for those who have questions about such things. Right, but if the "obvious" role models get drowned out by the majority, is that a problem? Do we just have to learn to be even louder? > It doesn't say anything about trying to create a female-majority > community within our project, or in Debian as a whole (hah!). I > personally don't think that this is about numbers or ratios: to me, it's > about welcoming women who are interested in Debian and encouraging their > participation, however many or few of them there may be. Well, that wasn't really what I was talking about. I keep in my mind events that have occurred in LinuxChix, such as women actually leaving the group because of only one dominating man or avoiding IRC because some of the men from the channel have flirted with them privately (or been condescending, or what have you). I don't think this is ideal, though the other argument is that the women just need to toughen up. Chances are that people will leave silently before ever complaining to anyone about it, especially if they're new. Is that a concern? If so, is there anything we can do about it? > I think it's great to see so much support from the rest of the (mostly > male) Debian community, and I think that discouraging this type of > participation would be detrimental to the goals we are trying to > achieve (I realize that this isn't what you were suggesting, Erinn). > I also think that our project has very strong female leadership, and > that should be obvious to even the newest of newbies ;-). I think discouraging it would be damaging as well, and I'm not advocating it; my questions are just based on curiosity, because I've seen negative things happen before, and it's something I worry about. I'm not really inclined to believe there is much that can or should be done about it. -- off the chain like a rebellious guanine nucleotide
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