Re: debian and women? from DWN #10
On 2004-03-26, Leo Spalteholz penned:
> 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.
The article addressed this head-on by calling attention to the
socialization that boys and girls undergo from a very young age. Women
(in general) are just not encouraged to explore technology and
computers. Did you miss the quote about how studies have found that, in
homes with computers, the family computer is much more likely to be in
the son's room than the daughter's? Sure, statistics can say whatever
you want, but it's definitely true that there are still many girls being
raised to believe that technical careers are inappropriate, unfeminine,
etc.
I also have to question the effectiveness of any program designed to
drag a certain segment of the population into its fold. After seeing my
own college's heinous attempts at recruiting black students, I can
definitely see how such programs can misfire severely.
> 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.
Could you provide some quotes? I don't recall getting a negative
impression about any community through this article, but maybe I glossed
over something. Surely just saying that someone acted like an asshat
one day on an IRC channel doesn't paint the whole IRC channel as
asshats?
--
monique
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