Re: We need more women!!!

faq
flatforty
contribute
subscribe
configure
search
rdf

main
parent
thread

Re: We need more women!!!
by Martin Fitzpatrick on Thursday 10/Jan/2008, @16:56

I get the impression that English is not your first language? Discussing these things is potentially explosive at the best of times, so I've given you the benefit of the doubt on some of the clumsy phrasing.

In an attempt to dig you out of your hole, would I be right to assume by "complexity" you mean in the "learning curve" sense. That is, because those groups you identify as being under-represented have - to date - less experience/track record of working on open software projects, there is a barrier to entry for them to take part? Even if only in terms of exposure, peer contact or community.

The comments on the UI stuff does smack a little of "girls play with the pretty things". That said, they are good areas to contribute for people from non-programming backgrounds, a description that fits more women than men. For now.

Hopefully that's you rescued... ...now, go get back to less complex things ;)

Related Links

·   Articles on Developer
·   Also by Martin Fitzpatrick
·   Contact author

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Re: We need more women!!!
by jospoortvliet on Friday 11/Jan/2008, @12:00

I think he has a point, even though he put it rather crudely. Boys generally enjoy technical and philosophical talk more than girls. There are many exceptions to that rule, of course - and it might very well be a cultural thing. In the Netherlands, more woman study and graduate from medicine schools - the average young surgeon here is woman, and she does a better job than males do... As that used to be a very male profession, I suppose it's kind-of a hint at the cultural basis of such biases.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: We need more women!!!
by Thomas on Friday 11/Jan/2008, @14:26

In my (computing graduate) school, the number of women has been on par with the number of men during many years (70s and 80s basically). They were even around 60% some years. But their number began to dwindle in the 90s, to become less than 10%. They are almost 25% now so it's better but it's still unbalanced. (But most of the teachers are still women.) According to some people they began to flee when the socially challenged geek cliché became widespread. But still, it means that the situation is far from being unrecoverable.

But when talking about men/women differences, bear in mind that more often that not, personal differences are greater than gender _average_ difference.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: We need more women!!!
by blacky on Saturday 12/Jan/2008, @13:46

Women are no more sensitive to public opinion than men are. Jeez, what a bunch of patriarchs in this thread.

[ Reply To This | View ]

The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )


		"We've been wondering, are Andreas Pour and Navindra Umanee the same person?" -- Charles Samuels
KDE®, "K Desktop Environment", "KDE Dot News", "got the dot?" and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster. The rest: Copyright © 2000-2008 KDE e.V. for The KDE Project. For further information or comments on this site, please contact the Webmaster.