[clug] Open Source Software's Dirty Little Secret

[Daniel Pittman]

Jack Kelly <endgame.dos at gmail.com> writes:
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Brendan Jurd <direvus at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Right, I've seen this effect at work too.  And it seems to me to be the
>> real meat of the issue.  We're all standing around wringing our hands about
>> how to encourage women into FOSS when this is precipitated by something
>> that begins AT BIRTH and continues right up through schooling?
>>
>> I feel that by the time a generation of girls have made it through that
>> filtering process, there are going to be so few real geeks left among them
>> that even if FOSS was the very model of asexual behaviour, it wouldn't be
>> enough to generate a critical mass of female participation.
>
> So perhaps we can step in at the high school level and offer some kind of
> program, like an out-of-school activity? Or is it too late, even at the low
> high-school level?

I don't think it is *ever* too late to do something about, well, more or less
anything.  Certainly most anything social.

Yes, damage will have been done, eggs broken, water passed, and that sort of
thing, but you can still help overcome the problem.

Regards,
        Daniel
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