Miriam, <br><br>I have enjoyed reading your input, and I think your breakdown of topics is very relevant. At the same time, when I compare your views to my views and experiences, I feel I come from a dramatically different perspective.<br>
<br>ex: 9) Different emotional sensitivities -<br><br>I feel like in the context of software projects, that you are making a huge generalization. I would suggest that emotional sensitivity is more directly related to confidence than gender. In my experiences, the people (men or women) on a project most willing to take suggestions, criticism, or defend an approach, are those who are confident in themselves and their skills in their particular area. People who felt they had to 'prove' themselves every time were far more aggressive and defensive.<br>
<br>I think your opinions and all offerred are all valuable, and I think it would be interesting to take your 11 areas here, and use them as the basis of the weekly blog writing assignments we had discussed before. That way we could each offer our opinions on these specific areas and hopefully spark some more wide ranging discussion.<br>
<br>Janet<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 12:08 AM, Miriam Ruiz <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:miriam@debian.org">miriam@debian.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Just for the sake of completeness, this was missing from my previous<br>
mail listing some possibles causes of the low number of women in<br>
FLOSS:<br>
<br>
9) Different emotional sensitivities<br>
<br>
One of the things that might cause friction among projects is that is<br>
quite likely that men and women have generally different sensitivities<br>
and thresholds in the emotional area, as well as different ways of<br>
responding to them. I'm not sure if it is biological or cultural, and<br>
I don't really think it matters much, but the fact is that a project<br>
will have to be able to deal with diversity in this aspect. The same<br>
level of indiscriminated open aggressiveness in the same environment<br>
is, in my opinion, more likely to affect harder the women than the<br>
men, as men are more used to handle and live in openly aggressive<br>
environments. I'm talking about harsh discussions, for example. Men,<br>
when discussing something, tend to be more focused in the assertive<br>
axis -which solution to choose- than in the relationship axis -taking<br>
care of the group cohesion-. Men and women also tend to react to this<br>
aggressivity in a different way. Men tend to increase their own level<br>
of aggressivity and "fight back", while we women somehow tend to flee<br>
from it. Or maybe is just a different kind of aggressiveness, and if<br>
there were a majority of women, we might see other kind of<br>
aggressivity harder to handle by men (I'm more used to move in overly<br>
masculine environments, but for what I'm told, an overly feminine<br>
environment environment can be very hostile as well in a different<br>
way). In any case, an openly aggressive environment seems more likely<br>
to draw women away than men, also when this aggressivity is<br>
indiscriminated and there was no kind of sexism involved.<br>
<br>
10) Lower technical self-esteem for women<br>
<br>
I guess that this might be somehow related to 3 ("Acknowledging that<br>
FLOSS is also for women"), but different. The fact is that women<br>
usually consider themselves less capable of doing some computer<br>
related stuff than men. When talking to male and female teenagers, for<br>
example, boys usually tend to overestimate their capabilities, while<br>
girls tend to underestimate them. I suspect it might probably be the<br>
same for adults. As a consequence, and taking into account some quote<br>
I once heard and that I guess is probably right, "you should talk<br>
possitively about yourself, because when all is said and done people<br>
remember the information, and not the source" (or something similar to<br>
that, by Charles Dickens, I think), which feeds back possitively and<br>
probably increases the gap, some women might not realise that they can<br>
be just as good as anyone else with computers.<br>
<br>
11) Perception that social relationships are opposed to computers<br>
<br>
It is widely known that, for whatever reason, women tend to give more<br>
importance to social relationships than men. As computer development<br>
is seen as an lone activity. In my experience, FLOSS development<br>
involves a huge amount of tasks related to social relationships, team<br>
managing and coordination, peer to peer collaborative development, and<br>
a lot of communication among the community itself. Maybe it is<br>
something that should be clarified, that getting involved in FLOSS<br>
does not mean to work isolated, and that social relationships play an<br>
important part.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
Greetings,<br>
Miry<br>
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