No subject

to get their first computer quite young, girls might not get one until they're
10 or so.  The "larval phase" (which thankfully seems to be going out of
fashion) might be tolerated by parents of a teenage boy but certainly isn't
societally acceptable of a teenage girl or young woman.  Career advisers tend to
push girls into picking "female-friendly" career paths such as chemical
engineering rather than mechanical, software or computer engineering.

Young women who do get into computer-focused university courses, not only see
their female course mates drop out over the years from about 30% down to 5% in
four years, but often have lecturers or tutors who actively propose changing to
"more appropriate" fields of study.  (Not all lecturers or tutors, but it only
takes one or two).  Once a woman gets a job as a programmer, system
administrator etc, she's often likely to be one of a very few women in her
workplace doing such technical things (1:3 after all).  Where she's the only
such woman she may also find herself in a very club-house atmosphere because
previously all the guys used work as a place of bonding rather than professional
work behaviour.  Although she's unlikely to experience overt discrimination as a
result of her rarity; statistics show that she's likely to be paid less, get
less promotions and lower bonuses than her male counterparts.  She's less likely
to job-hop at a salary raise of 20-30% per job change.

Many women also end up spending a disproportionately large amount of non-work
time on the second-shift work, including housework, child care, keeping up with
friends and family, organising social events for the household, paying bills
etc.  This reduces the free time they might have to spend on FOSS should they
want to do so.

To improve things, society will have to change.  There are lots of
discouragements to women getting into IT that can't easily be addressed by those
in IT.  However, there are things that can be done to make IT a nicer place for
all new contributors.  Kirrily's talk gives a bunch of examples.  For example:

* Recruit diversity.  Invite more than just your buddies to be involved in your
project.  Actively seek out the diversity you want to see.

* Say it.  Mean it.  Create a code of conduct or a diversity statement.  Use it
to set expectations.  Stand by it and uphold it.

* Value all contributions.  Whether code or documentation or translations.
Don't put coders above all other contributors.  Say thank you.  Don't flame
contributions just because they haven't followed some unwritten guideline like
code formatting.  Realise that different people need different amounts of
appreciation and that it's better to actually say "good job" (even if you would
never expect it) than to assume that applying the patch is sufficient.

* Call people on their crap.  If someone is being an asshole, call it.  Don't
give people free passes just because they're good at <something>.  Don't
tolerate sexist jokes just because they're funny.  Don't avoid getting involved
because you don't think it's offensive.  If you want an inclusive, diverse
community then you don't want the status quo; so you have to fight for change.

* Pay attention.  80% of men (reportedly) have not seen any sexism in the open
source community.  80% of women have.   Men generally aren't used to noticing
this stuff, because they are in a position of privilege.  Don't ignore it, pay
attention and become aware of how some behaviours can affect others in your
environment.

All the best,

	Jacinta

-- 
   ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-._          |  Jacinta Richardson         |
    `6_ 6  )   `-.  (     ).`-.__.`)  |  Perl Training Australia    |
    (_Y_.)'  ._   )  `._ `. ``-..-'   |      +61 3 9354 6001        |
  _..`--'_..-_/  /--'_.' ,'           | contact at perltraining.com.au |
 (il),-''  (li),'  ((!.-'             |   www.perltraining.com.au   |