[Kde-women] bei wem kommen die Fragen an?

[blk20]

Hi all,

Thanks for your answers. I am very happy to feel welcomed. 

Anne-Marie, you are of course right, research on the issue should not
only be done with the women involved. I do not think that women are the
reason why free software is such a gendered community. Most time I spend
in settings that are not determined by or for women. Observations I made
in forums like slashdot, for instance, give me some ideas why free
software appears not be very attractive for women (I guess most of you
are familiar with comments on gender issues there). 

However the things I learned being in contact with women's groups such
as linuxchix were very helpful. Participants there pointed me to
interesting sources of information (such as literature, howtos, etc).
Furthermore I am interested in whether and how channels that are set up
by women could help to increase female participation in free software. 

> Less than 2%: what about other technical fields as the Space Agency, some 
> research fields and so on. Are these 2% such a special number?

There are of course fields (even if very few) where one finds such low
female participation. Studies of women in science for instance have
interesting approaches for explanation. However, what I think is
intruiging in the case of free software, is the fact that there seem to
be more women in proprietary software than in open source. 

> link please? 

Thanks Brendan, we will of course put up the findings there. 

Cheers, 
--Bernhard