[UbuntuWomen] UW article for Fullcircle mag

[Vid Ayer]

On Jan 12, 2008 7:54 PM, Elizabeth Bevilacqua <lyz at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> It's not non-existent. One of the biggest criticisms of the Ubuntu
> Women project is that we segregate. This is why we dropped our
> separate courses program and joined Ubuntu Classroom.

Nope, its not dropped, it was never promoted well. Finding willing
mentors was also an issue.


> Why do women need a special place to be technical? I'm just as
> competent as my male counterparts, I learn the same way, I want to be
> treated the same way. I don't NEED a separate space to be technical
> in, none of us do.

Repeating my earlier mail, ...
"Which is where there is a lot of confusion and mis-understanding of
what UW is all about. If being a part of project UW is segregation by
gender, by that logic almost every Ubuntu loco team is segregation on
the basis of country, and other project teams (art, technical, motu,
etc...) segregated on the basis of specialization. That can be deemed
unfair in the larger Free Software philosophy which (to summarize in a
single word) is all about being "inclusive"."


> If we keep saying Ubuntu Women should be technical then the message
> we're sending is that we are different and we need special treatment.
> I thought this was the attitude we were trying to fight.

None here asked for special treatment. Discussing technical,
development or mentoring issues does not automatically mean we are
special or asked for special privs because we discussed it in UW
lists.  That is convoluted logic and does more harm at best.


> I thought we wanted to increase the number of women in the general
> Ubuntu community? How does segregating female technical stuff within
> Ubuntu Women help that? It doesn't. It hurts us.

Sorry then you mis-understood what UW was all about in the first
place. Please see the main page of www.ubuntu-women.org, and the
message is very clear from the day i founded it more than two years
ago.... UW has always been modelled along DW (debian-women).
To /quote:
We aim to provide an opportunity for women who want to be involved in
the Ubuntu community thereby increasing the diversity in Ubuntu-Linux
by :

    * Encouraging women to participate, for example, to learn to
create new FLOSS software (or revamp existing software), not only to
use GNU/Linux software, but to integrate backwards and learn more
about it.
    * Mentoring women in specific areas (such as technical,
documentation, translation and communication) so they have the
information and support necessary to take these new steps, to get
through barriers or difficulties, and to keep learning and growing in
the Ubuntu-Linux world.
    * Providing opportunities by sponsoring women who wish to give
technical presentations, or talk about their Ubuntu experience at
International conferences and seminars.
    * Organising hack-fests, bar camps for women at Linux conferences.
    * Increasing the number of women using Ubuntu-Linux in a
country-specific manner by providing a platform for talks at local
universities, LUGs and schools, which will encourage others to join.
    * Openly discussing issues facing women and their involvement in
Ubuntu (and Linux) and how to address them.

Programming is highly development-oriented and the vagaries of each
distro makes it even more difficult in terms of identifying a problem
in "X" application, and knowing how to 'fix' it. We hope to increase
the diversity ratio by creating an atmosphere for women to communicate
openly and ask technical questions without any fear of being flamed or
ridiculed for asking so-called silly questions.

/unquote




> Ubuntu Women SHOULD be about offering tips to survive in Ubuntu,
> sharing experiences and hardships, encouraging and helping each other
> to contribute to Ubuntu in general (via "horn tootin'" posts,
> mentoring, and publicizing Classroom), approaching community leaders
> when problems crop up, showcasing women within the Ubuntu project who
> can be role models, and keeping each informed about upcoming events
> that we might be interested in.

wrong, see above. I repeat, UW is not an "agony/complaint centre for
women issues in technology" so dont make it one. That is a huge
disservice to the women who come here expecting more from us.



> Ubuntu Women SHOULD NOT be a girls club where we hide and do technical
> stuff rather than joining the broader project.

It never was, so dont make it one by removing the technical aspects
especially when women are interested in it. That is discouraging to
all of us.
I dont recall women asking special privs because of their gender and
when were men banned or asked not to join UW ?
Say if women use UW (lists, irc, forums) to discuss about packaging
for Ubuntu, is that package not going back in to the distro? So how
does that not count as contribution into the larger community and why
is it discounted because it was under the aegis of UW. If so that
convoluted logic should be applied to all groups and teams, not just
UW.

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