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 communities (including open source software) aren't worth bothering with.
Women have the extra burden, because feminists tell them so, that maybe the rudeness was because of their gender. It must be like being black, where one can be never be sure whether you failed to get the job because of skin colour, or because you didn't do the interview tasks very well.
But this assumption would be wrong. It's possible that men are more tolerant of rudeness than women are, or are able to roll with it a bit more. But also, women may not enjoy the male dominated atmosphere, and male abruptness in general. I certainly would find it a bit hard dealing with a female-dominated community. But if females don't want to hang out with a bunch of nerds, who is being the sexist?
The assertion that online communities are filled with sexism strikes me as very odd. I know literally hundreds of software developers, and whilst some of them are a bit odd, none of them are aggressive or have ever expressed racist or sexist opinions. I haven't heard a sexist joke in decades, either online (in a tech forum) or in the workplace. I think this compares extremely favourably to many other professions. The only thing software developers are universally prejudiced against is stupidity.
So I'm struggling to reconcile my own experiences, with what Perens, feminists and social justice warriors are telling me is reality. It would be weird, if in a community of millions, there weren't a few sexist incidents each year, but this must be balanced against the 99% of engineers who are colour-blind and gender-blind. Yes there are bad apples, and yes they should be shamed and prosecuted as appropriate, but I don't think software engineering is worse than other professions.
As usual, I think gender issues have been overanalysed. The rudeness is a problem, but people who are rude to women are generally rude to men as well. I would certainly welcome more civility and respect online.
None of this has touched on the underlying reasons for gender biasses, either in computer programming as a profession, or in open source. For sure, there was a time when children were pigeonholed by gender, but that time is largely over now. Society still paints certain professions as certain genders, but it certainly isn't the fault of the engineers who actually work in the subject. Many professions are gendered, many for no good reason, yet you rarely hear feminists fighting for gender equality in linguistics or veterinary science, even though in my opinion, gender studies should encompass both genders.
I resent the suggestion that this is a consequence of "male privilege" to be allowed to sit in front of a computer screen 80 hours a week, and consequently, that males are actively trying to maintain their privilege (i.e. patriarchy) by keeping women out. Programming is a privilege, but only because it's a privilege doing what you love, and it's not a zero-sum game. My employment as a programmer isn't keeping someone else out.
Almost every engineer I know is positive towards gender equality in general, and to the idea of getting more women into computing. I say 'almost', only because I haven't solicited an opinion from everyone, but often you don't need to, because gender equality is a given. This doesn't match feminists' view of software engineers, because feminists are barking up the wrong tree, and blaming everything on men because it's intellectually lazy.
The geeks have done far more for gender equality, by transforming the workplace and home through technology, than social scientists have ever done.
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 communities (including open source software) aren't worth bothering with.
Women have the extra burden, because feminists tell them so, that maybe the rudeness was because of their gender. It must be like being black, where one can be never be sure whether you failed to get the job because of skin colour, or because you didn't do the interview tasks very well.
But this assumption would be wrong. It's possible that men are more tolerant of rudeness than women are, or are able to roll with it a bit more. But also, women may not enjoy the male dominated atmosphere, and male abruptness in general. I certainly would find it a bit hard dealing with a female-dominated community. But if females don't want to hang out with a bunch of nerds, who is being the sexist?
The assertion that online communities are filled with sexism strikes me as very odd. I know literally hundreds of software developers, and whilst some of them are a bit odd, none of them are aggressive or have ever expressed racist or sexist opinions. I haven't heard a sexist joke in decades, either online (in a tech forum) or in the workplace. I think this compares extremely favourably to many other professions. The only thing software developers are universally prejudiced against is stupidity.
So I'm struggling to reconcile my own experiences, with what Perens, feminists and social justice warriors are telling me is reality. It would be weird, if in a community of millions, there weren't a few sexist incidents each year, but this must be balanced against the 99% of engineers who are colour-blind and gender-blind. Yes there are bad apples, and yes they should be shamed and prosecuted as appropriate, but I don't think software engineering is worse than other professions.
As usual, I think gender issues have been overanalysed. The rudeness is a problem, but people who are rude to women are generally rude to men as well. I would certainly welcome more civility and respect online.
None of this has touched on the underlying reasons for gender biasses, either in computer programming as a profession, or in open source. For sure, there was a time when children were pigeonholed by gender, but that time is largely over now. Society still paints certain professions as certain genders, but it certainly isn't the fault of the engineers who actually work in the subject. Many professions are gendered, many for no good reason, yet you rarely hear feminists fighting for gender equality in linguistics or veterinary science, even though in my opinion, gender studies should encompass both genders.
I resent the suggestion that this is a consequence of "male privilege" to be allowed to sit in front of a computer screen 80 hours a week, and consequently, that males are actively trying to maintain their privilege (i.e. patriarchy) by keeping women out. Programming is a privilege, but only because it's a privilege doing what you love, and it's not a zero-sum game. My employment as a programmer isn't keeping someone else out.
Almost every engineer I know is positive towards gender equality in general, and to the idea of getting more women into computing. I say 'almost', only because I haven't solicited an opinion from everyone, but often you don't need to, because gender equality is a given. This doesn't match feminists' view of software engineers, because feminists are barking up the wrong tree, and blaming everything on men because it's intellectually lazy.
The geeks have done far more for gender equality, by transforming the workplace and home through technology, than social scientists have ever done.
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