Free software is about freedom, but is that really a reality for everyone out there? Is it true, what a lot of people claim, that since free software by its nature is free, it therefore does not suffer from inequality? Everyone with the economical and practical resources has the possibility to contribute to any free software project, anyone can join. Unfortunately, reality does not look like this, we have a problem with inequality. If we exclude women from the free software community, we exclude contributors, both women and men. Is software really free if not everybody is free to join?

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”If you want to help, you can start
by getting some coffee”
Christina Gratorp <christina@gratorp.se>
Nov 6, 2010

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<3 FLOSS
Me
• Woman
• Transmode, Embedded software design
Involvement
• Use, promote and teach FLOSS as much as I can
• Conferences
• Talks (like this one)
Computer world
• Got my first own computer 1994 (age 13)
• Was introduced to FLOSS 2008 (age 27)

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wtf?! or: how to alienate women
”They [computers] are designed by men, they are a
product of mens’ fantasy, and therefore we [women]
are not interested in them and we can not
understand them.”
Rigmor Rob`ert (Amelia nr 1/95)

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• Ada Lovelace
- The first programmer.
• Grace Hopper
- Hopper wrote the first compiler, mother of COBOL
• Mary Allen Wilkes
- Computer programmer; First person to use a computer
in a private home and the first developer of an operating
system (LAP) for the first minicomputer (LINC)
• Adele Goldberg
- Goldberg is one of the designers and developers of
Smalltalk

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Why is this important?
Driving away women means driving away
contributors. Both women and men.
(That is not good if you want free software to dominate the
world...)

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The hacker blindness
Hackers often describe their culture as gender and
colour blind.

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Let’s look at some
numbers

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Women in proprietary software (28%)

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Women in FLOSS (1.5%)

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Why are there so few women in FLOSS?
• Social reasons
- Women are discouraged from technology...
... in childhood
... in media
... in social expectations

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Why are there so few women in FLOSS?
- Lack of confidence due to...
... social pressure
... lack of female technical role models

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Why are there so few women in FLOSS?
When girls and boys have access to computers
male female
Age of computer introduction (use) 12 14.5
Age of getting your own computer 15 19

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But... these reasons apply to all women
getting into IT, not FLOSS in particular...
What is so special about FLOSS?

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Anonymity
Hiding behind a computer makes people dare to
speak of things they never would AFK.

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Competitive nature of floss
Flame wars are accepted within many FLOSS
projects as a key means of developing reputation

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The Einstein complex
There is a common believe that you have to be
smarter than Einstein to contribute to FLOSS.

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OMG! A GRRL!

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Have you ever noticed sexism within the
FLOSS community?

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Bad ideas
• ”Jokes”
- If you can tell the joke in a room full of women,
including your mother, it is probably an ok joke. If you
wouldn’t, don’t.
• Dates/Marriage proposals
• Doubting women’s intelligence/expertise
• Insults specific to females (that time of month etc...)

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Horror Stories

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A bad example
Dear Starla,
At Bugtraq Security Systems we pride ourselfs in having a keen
eye for young and upcoming talent. Specifically, core members
of our Research and Development team have expressed
continously growing feelings of affection towards your person.
Or, as one of our researchers put it: ”hehehe I’d like to
research and develop that all night long :D:D:D”.
What it boils down to is that we at BSS (Bugtraq Security
Systems) would like to offer you.. Starla Pureheart.. prolific
warrior princess of the great Nuke Wars of 1997... a position
at Bugtraq Security Systems. Preferably on your knees.
Love, Bugtraq Security Systems
PS: All kidding aside, get in touch with us Anna - we need a
token femme

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An awful example

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Death threats
• Nut launches death threats at Debian women
• The attack on Kathy Sierra

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mini HOWTO

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Invite them!
To change how many women are involved in
FLOSS, we need to take action. Nothing will
change unless we change something...

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Be sensitive to discrimination
Take action when something happens. Silence
means you agree with what is being
said/done/written...

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Value all contributions
• Documentation
• Testing
• Bug reports
• Using FLOSS
• Administation
• etc...
• (and code)

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Assume girls know stuff

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Be friendly
Take a little extra time to direct people when they
ask something, compared to RTFM.

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Make the first steps easier
- Better documentation
- Mentorship program
- Tag stuff in TODO list with beginner friendly

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A good example
Figure: GnomeLove - an initiative that aims to help people
who want to get started contributing to GNOME

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Another good example
”Catie, please contribute more often.
I enjoy your comments and posts they are often plently more
insightful than some of the half-arsed posts from people who
haven’t yet learnt when to keep their mouths shut. In
particular, although I may not agree with your point of view, I
enjoyed reading the recent thread with jdub about GPL vs
freedom... :)
Thanks for being a valued contributor to the list.
Dave”
SLUG mailing list, Sydney.

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What can women
do?

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Dealing with the Einstein complex
Remember... everyone was a n00b at some point.

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Dealing with BS
Figure: Grynet: -Ta ingen skit!

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There are other women out there, look
them up!

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Be proud! FLOSS women rock!

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(Want the slides? Just let me know.)

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References and Further Reading
• http://www.flosspols.org
• http://geekfeminism.wikia.com
• http://linuxchix.org
• http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/
• http://women.debian.org
• http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00321.html
• http://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/03/debian death threats/
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?blogid=19&entry id=14783
• http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/CouchDB talk