[CS-FSLUG] Survey of Women on the List

[Don Parris]

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 00:56:54 -0500, K Montgomery <keltik at nycap.rr.com> wrote:
> Don,
> 
> You've composed one of the few posts that have drawn me out.  Well
> done. :)
> Interestingly, I saw Brenda's post and started thinking about women on
> this list and in geekdom overall.
> 
> On Dec 28, 2004, at 5:29 PM, Don Parris wrote:
> 
> > (1) Firstly, I'm interested to know how many women are on the list,
> > and of those how many are actually in the IT field.
> 
> My role for the past 9 years has been in IT at a large university.
> More below.
> 
> > (2) What is your experience in working in this field?
> 
> Three years working as a student computer lab tech, and just over 6
> years as a full-timer.  (I resigned effective last Thursday so I could
> start my own business.)  While I've worn a variety of hats, all of my
> work has been related to direct technical support to users.
> 
> Interestingly, when I was helpdesk staff, the women in the helpdesk
> group greatly outnumbered the men.  There was also a significant number
> of women in management.  Then I moved to a position supervising student
> helpdesk workers, where my boss (male) and I were the only professional
> staff in the group.  Of nearly thirty student employees, only three
> were women.  (Talk about culture shock!)  I don't think the number of
> female students exceeded four in the two years I did that.
> 
> My boss at the student helpdesk was very pro-FOSS, and he let me
> implement all sorts of things.  I did MySQL, PHP, web application
> development, and more.  As far as specifically Christian FOSS, I don't
> have any formal involvement beyond this list.
> 
> > (3) How do you feel you are treated by the fellas on this list?
> 
> Can't complain.  The (very) occasional mild joke or remark doesn't
> cause more than an inward groan.  ;)
> 
> > (4) Are there any changes you would like to see in terms of our
> > behavior?
> 
> I would only remind the guys that some women have "come out" on this
> list, and you never know who may be lurking.  The latter part is
> important for anyone to keep in mind, male or female.  It's easy to
> take for granted that the active list members are the *only* list
> members -- which I've done.
> 
> > (5) Is there anything else you would like to add?
> 
> I am wary of women's groups (LinuxChix or other), because it seems that
> wherever (worldly) women band together to the exclusion of men, ungodly
> feminism comes out in force.
> 
> I'm surprised that in this day and age, many women still can't
> reconcile their femininity with their interest in male-dominated
> fields.  A "real" woman has learned to coexist interdependently with
> men.  Women who haven't learned that, you'll find running to women's
> groups.
> 
> And I wish some women would stop striving to inject females into
> male-dominated occupations for the sake of "equality."  Technical
> fields are always going to be mostly male: Deal.  As long as a woman
> can find acceptance in a field without compromising her womanhood,
> isn't that enough?
> 
> - Kathy
> 

Well, I'm learning.  As our community grows, I'm seeing more women
joining the listservs and web forums, especially Freely.  A couple of
ladies have joined lately, but few seem to actually get involved in
anything.  The silence of the "ewes" in the flock piques my interest a
bit.  O.k., maybe mixing movie titles with church themes isn't such a
swift idea.  :)

I don't know if you're aware, but The Freely Project has a
ticket-based helpdesk.  Churches can register to become customers, and
get e-mail based support, with an eye toward sticking with them till
the problem is solved.  There aren't any customers yet, but that might
start happening before we know it.  Could be a project for tech
support students to get involved with.

O.k., so now my wheels are spinning (you might smell smoke, too).  How
can we draw the quiet, shy ladies into the activist arena?  Aside from
the helpdesk, we're working at the news portal.  Another thing that
will need to happen is a marketing project to help the various
Christian FOSS projects "market" themselves.  I'm looking to
OpenOffice.org and Mozilla for examples.  Anyway, having some women in
the mix could be a good thing.

Perhaps we can get some women involved by sharing their testimonies
for the Freely CD.  It would be good to have women represented in the
mix - both IT and non-IT types.

Kathy, I appreciate your input.

Don
-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
Free software is like God's love - 
you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!