Re: debian and women? from DWN #10
On March 25, 2004 04:12 pm, Monique Y. Herman wrote:
> On 2004-03-25, s. keeling penned:
> > Incoming from Monique Y. Herman:
> >> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/
> >
> > That one elicited about the loudest flamefest I've ever seen, in
> > discuss@tldp.org. If you can find that thread in their archives, and
> > stand to wade through it all, you might find your answers there.
>
> I've been slowly wading through it. I honestly didn't find anything
> offensive in the document. I guess I should re-read it after I finish
> reading the flameage.
Reading this article I found it not so much offensive as just lacking some
important basic facts. For example, in the section about why there are so
few women in technology, there are several reasons listed, most of them
placing the blame on men in some way. I'm not saying that these reasons
are not valid, but I believe there is a bigger reason.
Women (in general) are just not that interested in technology and
computers. My university has programs to encourage women to enroll in
engineering and women tend to be favoured for jobs here but still the
percentage of female engineering students is less than 5%. Why is that?
No idea but certainly not because they are being "driven out". Every
effort is made to attract them to engineering and CS but there are just
not that many interested.
Another thing that bothers me in the article is when specific posts on
mailing lists are pointed out which contain sexist remarks and used to
make generalizations about that community. The fact is that every
community has assholes. This is the consequence of a largely unmoderated
medium and really can't be avoided.
my 2 canadian cents
~leo
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