[clug] Open Source Software's Dirty Little Secret

[Jacinta Richardson]

Eyal Lebedinsky wrote:

> I want to mention another aspect of the FOSS community that is known but
> maybe not highlighted. Some the those male-geek groups are actually
> intentionally for men (boys, whatever). This is the equivalent of other
> kinds of male bonding activities, and in this context women are excluded,
> and rightly so

So you're saying that some... what?  user groups?  conferences?  FOSS projects?
are deliberately formed to encourage male bonding and that that's is a good and
right thing?  I don't think anyone would argue against it being reasonable for
you to get together with a group of your male buddies and go and do something
just for you men.  Even if you did so while you were all gathered together at a
conference, so long as you weren't interrupting other conference events I doubt
anyone would care.

However if you're saying that it's rightly so that you could gather together a
group of men - where your criteria wasn't that they were your mates, but was
instead that they all worked together on project X - and held an event for these
men for the purposes of male bonding, I'd disagree.  I'd say that was
exclusionary and discriminatory.  It would be saying that any women who worked
on project X didn't matter; although soon enough you probably wouldn't have any
women working on project X any more anyway.

I can only assume that you made your point badly as I can't see any reasonable
interpretation of it.


But to address your larger point.  FOSS is not gender blind and it is not a
meritocracy.  It's made of people and people have all sorts of inherent biases
and make all sorts of unreasonable judgements without realising it.  Peter
Sheahan did some research on global workforce trends especially to find best
practice in increasing the numbers of women in senior roles in business.  In
particular he studied businesses who had explicitly aimed to increase the
numbers of women in those senior roles and who had buy in all the way up.  He found:

	As a general rule senior managers overestimate their “open mindedness”
	and ability to make non-sexist judgements. It turns out that [they] are
	half as open minded and inclusive in their behaviour as they think they
	are.

	Even when women’s networking groups exist, they are often excluded from
	the informal networks that count. That is, the networks where the most
	important decisions get made.

	Quotas work. As “insulting” as the need for a quota may be for many
	women, to get results we must forcefully break the biases which keep the
	status quo entrenched.

	Facilitating much more intimate networks to form between aspiring women
	and senior managers (especially men) is far more powerful than formal
	women’s networks.

http://blogs.theage.com.au/small-business/futureproof/2009/08/28/sexistbastards.html?page=fullpage


I think the first finding is key.  As a general rule many of us overestimate our
open mindedness and ability to make non-sexist judgements.  We, too, are
probably half as open minded and inclusive in our behaviour as we think we are.

To make a difference we need to be more open minded and inclusive.
Additionally, it'd probably help to arrange a more formal mentor ship program
for many projects.  Many men benefit from informal mentor ships from friends
they know in person or make on-line; a more formal program would help those
coming in without such initial contacts.

For those wondering why you should care about how many women are involved on
FOSS let's go back to that research for one final point:

	And what makes this most shocking is that ALL of the credible research
	shows that companies with greater diversity (namely women) in senior
	roles outperform the market by as much as 33%.

or

	According to Catalyst research in the US, companies with women on their
	boards are financially stronger by 35 per cent while a 2008 McKinsey &
	Company study said US women on executive teams contributed to a 48 per
	cent higher EBIT result than the industry norm

http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/executive-women/women-on-boards-addressing-the-gender-imbalance-20090903-f9pj.html?page=fullpage

FOSS isn't business, but if increasing the diversity of senior roles can make a
company run that much better, is it so far-fetched to believe that increasing
the number of women in your project can make it both more productive and enjoyable?

All the best,

	J

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