Bug#263084: Please change sexist language in debian (English) webpages
Package: www.debian.org
This bug reports a problem with content on the website. It was
suggested that I file it against www.debian.org, but if there is an
actual different package name for the website (I couldn't find one),
please file this bug against that.
I have noticed some examples of sexist language on the debian website,
looking at the English-language pages. Most examples take the form of
assuming that a developer will always be male, a project leader will be
always male, etc. This can be offputting and potentially offensive to
women like myself who wish to become debian developers, and encourages
people make the assumption that all developers etc are male.
Note that most of the pages I have looked at on the website are fine in
this regard. The most common strategy seems to be avoidance of gendered
pronouns (ie writing to avoid use of he or she), and use of he/she where
it's too awkward to avoid the pronoun altogether. Some pages use "they"
as a gender-neutral pronoun.
The worst example I have seen is here:
http://www.debian.org/devel/join/nm-advocate
I suggest rewording that page as follows (between ***s). The first
paragraph of this was written by Carla Schroder:
***********************************************************
"There is a checklist of what a NM has to do. The NM needs a GPG
key signed by a developer, then has to answer some Philosophy and
Procedures questions. The Tasks and Skills test proves that the NM has
the experience to be a good Debian developer.
You should advocate someone when you think that he/she is ready to be a
developer -- i.e. has the required skills and has been involved with the
project for some time. Just ask yourself if you want to see this person
in Debian -- if the answer is yes then go ahead with your recommendation
The exact steps are like this: you agree to recommend a prospective
developer and he/she signs up. Then you have to go to this site, click
on the correct name in the listing of applicants, go to the "advocate
this application" page, put in your Debian login and press the 'submit'
button. You will then receive an e-mail with an auth key which you have
to return GPG/PGP signed. When this is done, an AM will be assigned to
goes through the NM steps with the prospective developer."
***********************************************************
Other examples of similar problematic wording are at the following
pages. I doubt this is an exhaustive list. In most cases, the change
would be a case of substituting "she/he" for "he" in a small number of
places. I wonder if it is possible to automate the process of
searching webpages for "he" and "his" and subsitituting "he/she" and
"her/him", as a way of ensuring that there aren't any other pages on
www.debian.org with similarly sexist language. Presumably other such
things could be done for the pages in languages other than English, if
the problem arises in those languages.
http://people.debian.org/~mpalmer/debian-mentors_FAQ.html
http://www.internatif.org/bortzmeyer/debian/sponsor/
(I wonder if I were to fill out the form would it come up with "he's
looking for a sponsor", like the others?)
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/developers-reference/ch-resources.en.html
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/developers-reference/ch-pkgs.en.html
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/developers-reference/ch-beyond-pkging.en.html
http://www.debian.org/security/faq
http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals
Thank you,
Helen Faulkner.
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