Wednesday, February 27, 2013

They want it just the way it is


I knew sexism existed in the tech world, and I knew certain projects had more sexism than others (Drupal, Wordpress and Joomla seem to be very woman-friendly). What I didn't know until the other day, and now since I've done some reading on the subject, is just how pervasive and *required* it is in many open source projects!

And it's not a "benign" sexism, a placid one. It's an active, vitriolic and acidic sexism. It's tolerated by others who probably don't think they're being sexist (but really are) and any efforts to change the culture will fail not because any of the "men" in those projects can't see that there's a problem - it's because they like it that way! They want a sexist environment.

Carolyn Ann
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6 comments:

  1. Do you think Mozilla is pretty inclusive, or are they just good at placing women in places of visibility?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. This might be of interest to you, Lorraine: A Problem with Equality

      I know very, very little about Mozilla.

      Delete

  2. Well, that was eye opening. Looks like some hostile attitude has been transmitted by Mozilla to the world. The nonchalance of HR is troubling, but not surprising. I think of the HR profession as a sort of evil empire, but that's a whole 'nother topic. It appears that the community has a strong will to self-correct. That, I think, is what matters. Tim Chevalier, I think, correctly nails the central conflict:

    Shall we implicitly exclude people in socially stigmatized minority groups, or shall we explicitly exclude people who cannot or will not behave with respect?

    Perhaps the Linux kernel developers, being machine language and low level coders, think their blogs and other discussion forums are so arcane and incomprehensible to most of us that they basically have no larger audience needn't worry about public relations.

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    Replies

    1. I think it's more that they don't care about public relations!

      Personally, I'd go with option #2. If you're incapable of showing respect for your fellow human, why should anyone listen to you? Demanding respect and providing it are two different things, and I noticed that a lot of open source developers (particularly in the kernel group) demand it than provide it. They have an informal test: can you code. If yes, respect! If not, you're a loser/user/anything derogatory.

      Delete
  3. Replies

    1. Yeah, I remember it. Money is a powerful driver. Middle fingers from bratty middle-aged men? Not so much.

      Delete

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