As a software developer, I see regular discussion about gender issues in software engineering. In particular, this article by Bruce Perens asserts that women are treated badly in open source, and gives some suggestions how to address it. Another interesting website is geekfeminism.org , in particular their Timeline of incidents . I would certainly agree with Perens that online communities can be very hostile and rude, yet I think it goes too far to suggest that the majority of men in general, and open source contributors in particular, have a problem, even subconsciously, with women. The few women I have encountered in a technical context have been excellent, and I wish there were more of them. I certainly avoid online discussions for the reason that people can be very rude, and this is a real shame. But as a man, who in spite of my limited online presence, has been at the receiving of rudeness from plenty of men and women. The normal, sensible reaction to this, is that online