Tyler, I understand your wife's perspective completely. It seems reasonable to conclude that there are fewer women involved in OSGeo projects because there are fewer women involved in open source computing to begin with.
A possible response to your wife's argument is that our society tends to condition women for certain types of roles, and that we steer them away from careers in math or science. I don't know if this is true, but I can tell you I see the same lack of women in surveying and engineering as I do in software development. I don't have any daughters, but I have a couple nieces. It seems my younger niece, who is currently a freshman in high school, doesn't get much encouragement to think about math and science careers, although I think she has the brains for it. Her older brother, who is a senior in high school, is being encouraged to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering or a technical job in the United States Air Force. This in just one small example of what may be a larger trend in the way we view our children, at least in the United States. If our society is guilty of this bias in the way we raise, train, and teach our daughters, then some conscious effort to correct this bias is probably not inappropriate. I'm sure your wife and others have a response to this argument as well. If nothing else, I think this is a good conversation to have. Hopefully I did not just open Pandora's Box. :] Landon Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268 Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658 -----Original Message----- From: Tyler Mitchell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 12:51 PM To: Landon Blake Cc: OSGeo Discussions Subject: Re: RE: RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] new: OSGeo women mailing list > Maybe my statement was misunderstood? > > I meant to say that members of the open source project discussed > what we > might do to encourage the participation of more women in the > project. I > think there was recognition across the board that the project > would have > benefited from more diversity. > > I'm wondering if efforts to get young women more involved in > math and > science could be combined with encouraging them to try > volunteering with > an OSGeo project? Hi Landon, I understand, please bear with me, I'm probably the unclear one. Some of the women I know very well (one in particular :) tend to find it a wee bit condescending to be treated like a "special" group when in reality they are fully capable of joining projects they are interested in. Speaking of open source software, if fewer women are involved I just assume they aren't as interested.. just like any other group of people that make their own choices regardless of what others think would be optimal. It's not a big deal to me, but I've been briefed on the subject from my wife's angle regularly over the years so I feel compelled to pass it on :-) Best wishes, Tyler Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
