An Open Letter to the Open Source Community (Melissa Draper)

[Robert Carr]

On 5/22/07, Rich Johnson <nixternal at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 22 May 2007, Robert McWilliam wrote:
> | On Tue, 22 May 2007 15:24:52 +0100
> |
> | "Pete Ryland" <pdr at pdr.cx> wrote:
> | > Here's a fairly recent example I happened to
> | > witness to my absolute disgust:
> | >
> | > http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com/msg03636.html
> |
> | This was one of the examples Melissa gave as well (though indirectly).
> | I don't want to prove your point about how terrible this community is
> | in defending sexism, but: Can someone tell me what is offensive about
> | that joke? It relies on there being differences between males and
> | females which can make dealings between them hard, but I don't get how
> | that can be offensive since that is also (partly) what Melissa is
> | saying.
>
> Hey Robert,
>
> I will admit to actually getting a chuckle out it myself. I showed it to my x
> and my mother and they both said outside of a professional environment in an
> atmosphere where it was playful, OK, but they said if someone at work was to
> say stuff like that, it would be different. Everyone is different when it
> comes to being offended. It is hard to offend my mom because that is the type
> of person she is. Now with my x-wife it is a different story. She works in
> the IT field for the government, and has been mistreated because she is a
> woman. She has been hit on constantly at work, has been the victim of sexual
> advances at work. I know my x-wife and I know how truthfull of a woman she
> is, and talking to her this morning she has backed what Melissa and many
> women in the IT industry in general face daily.
>
> So I think if someone says they were offended, then they were offended. It is
> definitely a sexist joke and doesn't belong in a professional environment.
>
> OK, here are some other quick points to posts to this thread....
>
> --------
> "I am not at all surprised that there is a low number of women in Open
> Source/Free Software/GNU/Linux/Ubuntu (covering everything here ;)).
> The problem with Linux and to a certain extent Free software in
> general is it needs a higher level of skill and knowledge to use. Yes
> many of you will now yell those immortal words "Linux is user
> friendly" and I agree to an extent. But installing ANY OS is not a
> simple task to some people."
> ---------
>
> I am sorry, but it is this type of thought that has help spark the letter that
> Melissa has written. You just incinuated that women aren't as smart with that
> statement. You are not surprised at the low number of women in the FLOSS
> world, and then you justified that statement with "The problem with Linux and
> to a certain extent Free software in general is it needs a higher level of
> skill and knowledge to use." I don't know if this is what you meant to say,
> but it was blatently put and is actually belittling to women everywhere. I
> know quite a few women in this industry that would walk circles around a
> great majority of people who develop software, maintain networks, or design
> system solutions.
>
> Then you go on to say the following:
>
> "So what has this to do with the number of women in Linux/FLOSS. Well
> in my experience women tend to be less well educated in the field. Go
> and have a look around some Universities Computing departments, look
> at many of the CS courses. Notice something? The ratio of Men to Women
> isn't anywhere near 1:1."
>
> It could very well be this type of attitude that is keeping women out of this
> field. I have seen women do way better at my university when it comes to IT
> education than a majority of men. Maybe it is high time we make this field
> (IT and FLOSS) a little more attractive to not only women, but everyone in
> general. I know for a fact that in the US alone, the computer science field
> doesn't push out the amount of graduates it once did.
>
> I would really like to know how you can justify saying "women are less
> educated" in this field. I know people like Melissa Draper, Sarah Hobbs,
> Caroline Ford, Celeste Paul, and more would walk circles around most of the
> men in this community. I am going to use Sarah here as I work with her on a
> daily basis with Kubuntu development. She hasn't been in the Linux world all
> that long, maybe a couple of years. And already she has been nominated by
> community leaders to become a core developer. If I am not mistaken, she will
> be the first woman to do so. I have seen Sarah mature over the past year and
> half to a level I have yet to see most men do. Caroline Ford is amazing when
> it comes to triaging bugs. Caroline has tore my documentation apart for which
> I am so very grateful for. If it wasn't for her, we would have shipped some
> very poorly written docs in some topics. Celeste is kicking arse for KDE. I
> mean she is rocking usability to a level that is just mind boggling. And then
> there is Melissa. She is pretty much Jono's right-hand woman! She has helped
> with this community more than anyone else I have seen. And these are only a
> handful of some simply amazing women that you will run across in our
> community. Is it fair that they should be subject to sexist jokes on public
> mailing lists? a/s/l? pics? cyber? The list can go on.
>
> It is funny. I was thinking more people would be supportive and not
> judgemental, but I actually surprised at the reverse. And this whole thing
> about men have thicker skin, they don't complain about these issues, and so
> on. Well I think the reason why is most male geeks use this as an ego boost.
> The running joke is male geeks are virgins, and from some of the attitudes
> and views I have seen, I think it isn't running anymore, it is right here and
> real. Just because it doesn't bother you, doesn't mean it won't bother
> others. Like I stated on Melissa's blog, I was in a military position that
> was all men, no women. Typically a Little Rascals "He-Man Woman Haters" type
> deal. It was a combat engineering position aboard a ship that required heavy
> lifting. My first 2 years in this field in the early 90s (92 & 93) was all
> male. They changed it, and I will be the first to admit I didn't like the
> idea. It wasn't until I seen women outperform men in a rate that wasn't easy.
> And not only did they outperform but they did better on their rating tests
> and made rank quicker than most men. After seeing that my attitude changed
> towards women when it came to equality.
>
> I will end this now, if any of you feel like discussing this further, I am on
> IRC as nixternal. Feel free to message me.
>
> I will take this last bit here and say THANK YOU! to the women as well as the
> men who work their asses off for free software. I want to say thank you to
> Melissa for having the great amount of courage it takes to write an open
> letter to the community as such. If you can back a DRM letter to Bono or
> Steve Jobs, then I think you can back this type of letter as well.
>
> --
> Rich Johnson
> nixternal at ubuntu.com
> GPG Key: 0x2E2C0124
>
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>

Andy clarified this himself, but I will word a similar thought in a
slightly different fashion.

I think his point is that discrimination within the open source
community is NOT the reason there are not more women in open source.
Even if the open source community alienates (a clearly hyperbolic) 4
out of every 5 females who try to join, and this were somehow
rectified, there would still be almost no females in open source.

The real problem is that due to various pressures existing in most
cultures, females are less likely to both have the expertise, and self
motivation/interest to participate in open source, and I think this is
going to take a lot more than stopping some snide comments on IRC or
on the mailing lists to fix.

Not to say discrimination in the community isn't a problem, and
something we want to improve on. I just don't think it's the best
place to focus our efforts if we want to attract a more balanced
demographic.