[Womeninfreesoftware] Hello, and a Question

[Lefty (石鏡 )]

Just joined the list after reading, with some interest, the output of the
³mini-summit².

Deborah writes:
>
> "Why aren't more women involved in the movement to maintain and secure
> freedom for all computer users?" There is nothing particularly male
> about either computers or freedom -- and yet women account for fewer
> than 2% of our community.

Well, no time like the present, I suppose. FYI, this is Lefty attempting to
be polite and nonconfrontational on a thorny and somewhat frustrating issue.
Please don't shoot the piano player: he's doing the best he can.

At the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit, there was indeed nothing ³particularly
male² about either computers or freedom, other than the roughly 30-to-1
male-to-female ratio; it seemed that ³EMACS virgins² were ³particularly
female², however. I was amazed to find no particular mention of this in the
notes to the mini-summit, quite frankly.

Maybe I¹m the only one who viewed this as an issue contributing to the fact
that ³women account for fewer than 2% of our community². Maybe I¹m just the
only one _mentioning_ it. It does strike me as a large-ish elephant in the
room, however.

I think everyone has to admit that 2009 has been a blue-ribbon year for
heavily sexualized presentations, by men, at technical conferences. What is
the FSF doing to set a better example than was shown in Gran Canaria? Is any
apology, or statement, planned regarding having been a _contributor_ to the
problem in that instance?

"I want the [...] open source [...] communities [I participate in] to be a
dignified, respectful, inclusive, and welcoming place. Š We¹ve all been
witnesses to off-color jokes, misogynistic back channel chatter,
questionable imagery and unnecessary, trolling comments. _I pledge to do
better to stand up and call this behavior out when I see it in conferences,
online and other public settings. I don¹t expect it to go away but I¹m not
going to tacitly condone it any longer._"

I've been trying here.

I'm informed, by the bye, that when this question came up at Software
Freedom Day in Boston, the President of the FSF apparently informed the
questioner that "The person who brought that up seems to be a troll-like
enemy of the free software movement."

_That's_ an interesting starting point.

Anyway, I'm quite interested in any practical outcomes that spring from this
effort...