[Kde-women] Re: flosspols survey

[B. L. Krieger]

Hi Anne-Marie, Charles,

Thanks for your feedback. 

> On April 7, 2005 06:36 am, Charles de Miramon wrote:
> > B. L. Krieger wrote:
> > > It is one aim of the flosspols project to provide an understanding 
> > > of why there are so few women involved in free/libre/open source 
> > > software (less than 2%) and to reccmmend measures to counteract this 
> > > trend. So it would be of real help if you could support this survey.
> >
> > I still don't see how the study of the extraordinary women who are 
> > already participating can give information why the majority are not 
> > participating. Studying Margaret Thatcher won't give you much clue 
> > about the common British woman.

To stay in line with your analogy, it would make sense to look into 
biographies of female politicians in the UK in the 1970s/1980s to find out 
which kind of women get into politics in the first place. It is further 
interesting to talk to politicians (female and male) to see whether they 
have different perceptions of what is actually happening in parliament, in 
the lobbies, in the clubs, etc. Looking at the kind of politcs they stand 
for, the kind of parties they join and the ways how they persue their goals 
may reveal a lot of what is happening in politics as well as in the society 
in general that keeps women out of politics.

Having said that I would rather not compare female free software 
participants with Maggie Thatcher ;)

> > My point of comparison is roller-skating. When I was young in France, 
> > roller-skating was a pure male activity. As a young teenager, you would 
> > convert to roller skating, change your clothes, gather in small groups 
> > on the specific spots in the city and practice for hours difficult 
> > figures like a rat in a cage. There were some girls in the skater 
> > community but they were a tiny minority. Today, roller-skating is 
> > mainstream, people do it every Sundays with your friends or family and 
> > the sex ratio has become standard. I believe this kind of mutation will 
> > happen also for Free Software projects.

Actually I would hope that the ratio of the female skaters which perform 
difficult figures would increase as well. Isn´t it important for free 
software that more women get in before the mainstream? Why do they wait 
that long?

> > That is why it is maybe interesting to have a page describing jobs 
> > that you can do in the KDE project that will fit your free time. 
> > Recruiting volunteers is a very frustrating job. A lot of people will 
> > send an e-mail and ask for information and then leave without going 
> > further. But, you have to do it. By the way, I'm looking for somebody 
> > to help (and quickly take the responsability) of doing promotional work 
> > for KDE in France. No need of any technical expertise. It is a 2 hours 
> > / week job.

Unfortunately I am no longer in France (which also means that I cannot join 
in Paris skater afternoons on Sunday afternoons ;(

> Excellent analysis! Yes, more and more women join the project and become 
> KDE users. I meet some on IRC.

Is there more activity on IRC for KDE women?

> And yes, I'm not Margaret Thatcher and I roller skate!

I hope so, at least for your first claim.

Best,
Bernhard