[UbuntuWomen] Ubuntu Women Sessions for Ubuntu Open Week

[Lucy]

2009/11/5 Alejandra Ruiz <alejandra.ruiz at gmail.com>:
[snip]
>> > Anyone have anything else before the session tomorrow? So far my
>> > examples pretty much center around some of the stories I've been
>> > exposed to that have made some women feel less welcome (marriage
>> > proposals from strangers upon learning they use linux, being -or
>> > feeling like- you're the only woman in a room/project/irc channel/etc,
>> > being in the audience at an event where the speaker makes remarks
>> > assuming the audience is all male, assumptions being made that you're
>> > somewhere as a "girlfriend" and the resulting shock when people learn
>> > you're actually involved).
>>
>>
>
> Talking from my experience I have discovered that women are more keen to
> prove new things  than men. When I first tell my mum about ubuntu, she
> started to ask me about how could she continue to do the things she used to
> don on the computer. I let her to use my laptop so if she liked it she could
> have it as well. She was so impressed. The only thing she didn't like was
> that I forget to translate some applications to spanish and she doesn't
> speak any english. Once that was resolved she is the fan number one. My
> grandmother as well is using ubuntu. She says she find the things easier.
> She still has problems with new applications, but she has problems with any
> OS. She needs someone close to her to tell her how does the new application
> works. My dad is just starting to count on ubuntu. First he said:  Oh not a
> new thing!, I know how to use Windows and that is what I will use and that's
> my last word. Now when he thinks I dont see him, he is proving my syster's
> computer where I installed ubuntu.

In my experience, my Dad is more keen to learn about things than my
Mum and he's really taken to Ubuntu.

I think stereotyping like this is really dangerous, particularly in a
group as diverse as this one. In reality, there are some people
interested in learning about computers and some who aren't. Gender
shouldn't come into it.

> In technical discussions I found myself alone with a brunch of men. If none
> of them knows me, sometimes they find me as a stranger. But with not much
> time, I find myself as part of the group and next time, the same men come to
> talk to me and ask form my opinion.Women must have the courage to give their
> opinion, it is less harder than what we think.

I found this really really difficult at first. Now I've created my own
little techniques for indicating that I'm technical to the other
person (using phrases like 'oh, during my Comp Sci degree I ...').
I've also found that women just was much as men assume that I'm not
technical, only it shows less because I met fewer women in a technical
context.

> I have to say that when I started to date with my boyfriend, many of his
> friends didn't count with my opinion on technical aspect. I needed some
> months to change that so now in some aspects they ask me in first place
> rather than asking him :)

It's interesting how the context changes things! In this instance,
your feminine side is very obvious (because your associated with your
boyfriend), which in most cultures presently means that you can't
possibly be technical as well :/