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Re: We need more women!!!
by yman on Thursday 10/Jan/2008, @13:43
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| it might just have to do with personal interests. no one is stopping women from getting involved, so they probably just don't want to. there are equal opportunities, if women aren't taking what they can have, it's because they don't want it. |
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Re: We need more women!!!
by Chani on Thursday 10/Jan/2008, @21:31
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sadly, it's not that simple. there are lots of subtle things that can push women away; society in general pushes them towards more 'feminine' things, teaching children that girls are supposed to be one way and boys another (it seems to me that the *boys* who don't fit into this are the ones who suffer most these days - grade school can be such a cruel place). computers are seen as a male thing. geeky male stereotypes are all over the place. women still have more trouble than men in the workplace, which may turn some of them away from comp sci in general.
I find it quite interesting that in china, the gender ratio in comp sci is actually close to equal (or at least my teacher said so; I haven't checked the numbers myself).
also, perhaps some girls just don't like being surrounded by guys all the time. bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, that. :)
then there's the problem that when there are few girls around, the atmosphere can be kinda... male-centric? 'guy talk' can kinda make girls feel left out (thankfully I don't see kde channels having conversations about pr0n or anything) and sometimes guys tend to communicate differently from girls. in the same way that people from asian cultures can be unintentionally pushed away by the directness of criticism, girls can be pushed away by what people on the inside see as perfectly normal behaviour. most will either adapt to it by acting more like a guy (this isn't really a good thing; co-operation and discussion tend to be feminine traits), or turn away. and then on top of that there's the whole free-software-culture thing to adjust to. I think in this a little flexibility is required from both sides. :)
while women on *average* may be less likely to enjoy programming, I'm certain that the difference is far smaller than what we actually see.
I think KDE is really a great community, and I've hardly seen any seen any sexist behaviour (what little there was was unintentional, I'm sure), but people aren't likely to discover kde until they've already got past other potential barriers - in the general free software community, in school, at work, and in society.
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Re: We need more women!!!
by Leo on Thursday 10/Jan/2008, @22:49
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>> also, perhaps some girls just don't like being surrounded by guys all the time.
Now how did a female friend of mine in engineering put it.. Something like there's quantity but a real lack of quality :)
Also I have a current female co=worker that started out in engineering but was repelled in her first semester by the masses of socially awkward engineering males. Not that it's the rule, but engineering/csc certainly has more than its share of those kinds.
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Re: We need more women!!!
by LMCBoy on Friday 11/Jan/2008, @15:02
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> Now how did a female friend of mine in engineering put it.. Something like there's quantity but a real lack of quality :)
Or what the female students at Caltech say: "The odds are good, but the goods are odd".
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Re: We need more women!!!
by Leo S on Monday 14/Jan/2008, @16:00
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Haha yeah that was it. Your memory is significantly better than mine :)
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