Encouraging Women

Notes from meeting 16/2/2012

Goal: Making our group, and the free software community in general a great experience for women.

  • Why this discussion?

    • started with discussion on mailing list, following (or preceding?) Adacamp
    • Miniconf on Hexen - talks on diversity
    • Bianca posted message on a howto, because some people had (without malice) said some problematic things on the mailing list
    • Continuing issue in free software circles (low rates of participation of women)

  • brainstorm

    • Guys: you may feel defensive during this discussion, be aware of that (also interested in why?)
    • Interesting (counter) point: speech pathology has 98% participation rate by women; no effort to increase male participation
      • Some other sectors of society may have a greater percentage of women; these sectors may currently use little free software

  • What are the barriers to participation?

    • Few women currently
    • Maybe women just aren't exposed to free software in their current circles.
    • Upbringing; role models during childhood (toys - "Polly Pocket", parents, teachers) - however, other cultures e.g. India don't seem to have this problem
    • Snide comments from other community members
    • Networking is difficult!
    • Practical considerations, like danger of travelling alone at night (to community meetings)
    • Sometimes things are said, especially in emails etc. that can be offensive. Language: choose your words!
      • E.g. Major project in business. Major test lead left. Male temp came on; after temping position finished, female took over lead role. Other male colleague refused to speak to female lead out of jealousy. He consistently had this problem with women, especially those younger than him, who were in higher positions than him. -> Mitigation: a public statement that this behaviour is not on would have gone a long way (even if not mentioning the offender by name) -> Terminology: respect for your team members. Take care; public humiliation may attract hostility or even litigation
      • Sometimes this is difficult for men to perceive.
      • Rule of thumb: "would you say it to your grandmother?" - or to a young girl?
      • It's particularly important for a man to stand up and say something when something offensive is said. This should especially be done by peers, rather than management
    • E.g. a team that worked well online couldn't function in person because the men couldn't speak to the woman; this made her feel very uncomfortable
    • E.g. conference presentations with sexy pictures, jokes making fun of women; these are pervasive themes, and seen as the norm in tech circles
    • "Don't feed the troll" is not always helpful - some people might observe this as acceptance of the behaviour. In this case, the victim will just walk away. Hobbyists are doing this for fun; if it's not fun, people will leave.
    • maybe sometimes it's OK to ostracise somebody if they are causing trouble for others.

  • Who do women tell about problems in FS? E.g. if peers don't notice that something offensive has been said.

    • Sensitivity officer: a go-to person who listens to these problems and helps to resolve it. Someone who is going to be compassionate about your concerns
      • Women's mailing lists in bigger projects
      • Part of the role of the leader? E.g. Debian project leader, Stefano, who tells people to back down.
      • At first, this role may need be filled by a well-respected member of the community, like a leader.

  • Are there benefits to attracting women to free software?

    • Having greater diversity helps us to meet the needs of more people (both in the products we produce, and with our culture itself)
    • Potential for many more hobbyist developers working on free software (great disparity between participation in free vs proprietary software development)
      • Citation?
      • Why? Maybe it's because in a professional environment, a greater diversity of roles is actively sought.
    • Nearly everything you do to encourage women will benefit all participants
  • What's in it for women?
    • Women take different things from experiences; maybe these aren't being addressed.
    • E.g. men value an intellectual challenge; women enjoy networking (generalisation)

  • In changing our culture in terms of acceptance, we can be more inclusive in general

  • Why do men participate?

    • To fix things!
    • Philosophical needs. So why don't women acquire the same ideals?
  • Why don't women?
    • Too much emphasis on coding; not inclusive to other roles and other types of contributions. Some organisations are better than others, e.g. GNOME and Mozilla
    • Commercial software development may put greater emphasis on testing etc - roles that may attract more women
    • May think of programming as work, so why do it in your spare time?

  • Why do women?

    • Topics of interest
    • Meeting people with similar interests - particularly to create new relationships

  • Free software is an inclusive ideology, so exclusion of any group is a problem

    • Community and free software should go hand in hand
    • If we want to realise our goal of improving society, we can't just focus on software and ignore the other social aspects

  • Don't flame, don't say RTFM, don't marginalise

  • Invite women along!
    • Do women need a more explicit invitation?
      • Maybe! Google has had good success with a special GSOC-like program specifically for women. Also, women in India are encouraged to do engineering roles.
  • Be welcoming and inclusive

Action items

  • Speak up if you notice bad behaviour in free software circles - whether it's offensive to women in particular, or offensive to others
  • Further reading: geekfeminism.org geekfeminism.wikia.com, Getting to "Yes" (re: conflict negotiation), Ada Initiatives support mailing list, women-focused mailing lists on Ubuntu and Debian. Find women to listen to.
  • Add a link to one or two of these on the FSM home page
  • Draft a code of conduct for our group, can be based on others (e.g. Wikipedia)

Follow up suggesions by Ange

How about these for a couple of strategies?

  • Specifically say 'Female developers welcome' on your communications - make it clear that your group is actively trying to increase the number of female members.

  • Organise a recruitment drive. Get current members to approach any female developers they know and encourage them to attend - the member who recruits the most new female members gets a prize?

  • Reach out to tertiary institutions - and make sure lecturers are passing on that you are looking for new members, and are particularly aiming to increase the number of female programmers involved in your organisation.

  • Nominate some current members as Ambassadors - and when advertising meetings, provide contact details for someone new members can contact if they are considering coming along. If one of those Ambassadors could be a woman already in the group, then even better!

It's kind of intimidating rocking up to a meeting where you don't know what happens and you don't know anyone. Even more so if you turn up and find you're the only woman in the room. If you have nominated people to perform the function of 'welcomers' they can make a point to take responsibility to engage with new arrivals and make sure they settle in ok.{: page-href="wiki:///encouragingWomen"}