[UbuntuWomen] Hi, I'm the new kid | Can technology be "more female"?

[Jacinta Richardson]

Yolynne Medina wrote:
> Hello from Philippines!
> 
> IMHO, Technical stuff generally appeals more to  Male than to female.
> Since being involved in Free Software needs one to be passionate in
> exploring technology in a more in depth manner, therefore the Male
> gender dominates it more.

It's very hard to separate oneself from the cultural filters we have.  I'm not
convinced that (computer) technology == male per se.  I'm not even sure that
exploring stuff in "a more in depth manner" == male.  Take cooking, knitting,
sewing, quilting - all common female hobbies.  You can make cool quilts just by
using a Jelly roll, but in order to really make something special it helps if
you've picked your fabrics carefully, chosen the features you want to cut out,
worked out what blocks you're going to use and how you're going to integrate
them, if you're super careful about your thread, your tension, having all the
corners match up etc etc.  There are quilters and there are people passionate
about quilting.  Just as there are coders, and there are people passionate about
writing code.

Now I agree that for the majority of us; our culture does say technology ==
male, and I fully accept that since we drum this perception into our children
from birth that as a result more males and less females are drawn to technology.

Be aware that there are a few different concepts that we mean when we talk about
"technology".  There's the use of that technology - such as consumers using
mobile phones.  This is uninteresting to most of us.  There's the competent use
of that technology such as system administration, network administration etc;
all the way up to creation of new things via software programming.  There's also
the creation of new technology - often via new hardware.  Throughout all of
history - at least in my Western culture - creation of new tools etc has been a
male task with next to no female involvement.  However competent use of those
tools has often been split rather arbitrarily into male or female roles.  For
example, many kitchen appliances have been invented by men but are primarily
used by women.  On the other hand garage tools are primarily used by men.  These
are two obvious ones; how about the lawn mower?  Taking care of the garden was a
woman's job, but lawn mowers are primarily used by men, and in fact many men now
view their well kept lawn as a mark of pride.

Most of what we (women in IT, ubuntu women, LinuxChix) focus on is this
competent use of technology.  Regardless of the gender inventing the hardware, I
don't believe there's any particular bias in computer technology that
necessarily makes it attractive to females or males.  I think most of that bias
comes instead from culture.  The first computer programmers were women.  They
were put out of work when the men came back from war and needed to be employed;
just as many other women who'd be competently holding up the economy were also
sent home.  Then the men found out that computer programming was pretty cool and
they've kept it to themselves ever since.

>  But I also believe that the gender divide is
> getting slimmer due to the fact that Free Software has social ideals and
> principles that attract more Women nowadays. 

I'm delighted to hear that that's the case in the Phillipines.  It's not the
case in Australia.  Regardless of the existence of Free Software, we're losing
women from IT and girls are not going into it.  I've been to "Women in IT"
events where none of the other women were geeks!  They were all in human
resources or management; they used computers heavily, but didn't understand them
or even want to!

At most of the user group meetings I've gone to this year, I've been the only
woman.  I go to a lot of such gatherings; on average 2-3 a month.  So of about
12 meetings I've been at, I remember 4 with at least one other woman.  One or
two women in a group of 10-15?  (some times as high as 20?)  There used to be
more women at these same meetings.  Over here in Australia I seriously think
that numbers are declining and we are certainly not getting new women turning up.

I know lots of awesome men involved in Free Software, but there are more
less-awesome men.  Men who I don't want to sit next to at the restaurant or pub
after the meeting.  Not because they are lecherous or particularly unpleasant;
but because they are *boring* and don't know how to take a hint that I don't
care about their topic of interest (that is they're lacking in social skills).
Others are usually great to talk to, but should you disagree with something they
say, then they turn into darleks - determined to exterminate you.  They can get
really nasty and impossible to continue to working with.  Sometimes - after a
few too many run ins with less-awesome these gentlemen - I skip a few of those
meetings.  Sometimes I think about stopping going entirely (and have done so in
some cases).

I know you can meet such people in all areas of life, but my life is structured
such that I *only* meet them at user group meetings.  I get out a lot, it's just
that I don't include these types of people in my social groups; and as I run my
own business, I don't employ them either.

What this leaves us with is me attending meetings where there are a few awesome
men, some average men, some boring men, and some downright unpleasant men and
*occasionally* another woman.  Fortunately I find my encouragement to continue
outside these circles.

I find a similar mix on the mailing lists I'm on too.

> You can also note the difference in volume of Women participation coming
> from different geographical locations.  I see a lot of Asian Women
> participate in FOSS gatherings and activities most of whom are engaged
> in Non Profit Orgs that has adapted FOSS in their system.

This is true.  In _other_ cultures (than mine) there are a much higher
proportion of women involved in computer technological fields and consequently
FOSS.  This is part of the reason why I think that the idea that technology ==
male is false.  This should give us all hope.

	J

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