sorry, maybe I needed a bit more of context; LATAM situation with female
participation is kind of new in what the rest of the world is.
2013/5/27 A. Mani <a.mani.cms(a)gmail.com>
On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 1:03 AM, María Leandro
<tatica(a)fedoraproject.org>
wrote:
>
> To be honest, I don't have a huge believe into "woman groups" since
that
> starts setting the line in the first place. It's true that a safe
> environment would be the best, however; is sounds a bit odd to say "hey,
I
> want equality for everyone... but you must treat me well because I'ma
girl".
It will definitely sound odd to strongly motivated and independent
women from urban cosmopolitan milieus and that includes me.
We need to look at the larger picture ... not ourselves.
The fact that I'm not a huge believer doesn't mean I don't participate.
I'm
quite active in several local groups; however, the best way to include more
women has been to make them feel like equals by example. As a personal
experience i can say happily that at FLISoL (a latam event, quite huge) I
started with a team of 1 in 2008, then gather a team of 10 at 2008 (all
guys) but ended up with a team of 250 50% / 50% girls and boys.
However, it's quite easy to help women when you can interact with them in
the same room; my critique goes mostly to that. As you like to see the
large picture; most movements that had a larger impact have an insitu
meeting; probably that's what we would need; probably a hackfest like ADA
camp? (but more for people outside NA?)
>
> My experience might be a bit particular and even if we all know that
there
> are fewer girls into IT, is not only because the environment, is because
> there are few, period. Just to place the example.
>
> If you go to an IT class at any college/university; you might see that
> classroom is about 70% male and 30% female (depending on the specialty
the
> number might vary); so, why do we want more female participation if it's
> obvious that numbers have never been equal?
>
Why did it become like that in the first place?
If you are interested in developing human resources, then you need to
look at sociological models ...
not the ones big corporates use.
We are also not targeting only IT people.
People from any kind of background have the potential to do well in free
s/w.
No, we are not; however, I'm part of a distro and I help several apps and
I definitely would love to see more women involved into the tech aspect; at
the end, we are talking of a Linux group. Now, at least in latam, I could
say that the number of female spreading the word has increased a LOT, same
with Asia.
> We can consider that the part that nobody likes to accept. Now; it's also
> true that environment (not everywhere but mostly) is not female-friendly
> just because that, from this small percent; some girls only come to feel
> desired and like goddess. The even smaller part that DO want to bring
some
> change finds themselves hiding behind neutral nicknames, fighting the
ocean
> of comments or just gets tired and helps other ways. Truth is that, if we
> want equality, we must fight to get it and even if the woman groups are
an
> awesome place to share experiences and motivate participation, but that's
> it.
>
> I guess a lot of people expect that support groups do something for them
and
> forget that change is in our bare hands. What we can do with a women
group
> at Fedora, I srsly don't know; but if each group that feels despised
(aka;
> religion, ethnics, etc etc) starts creating a support group, then there
will
> be 100 small groups not focusing into the large group that can actually
make
> the change.
Affected people know nothing about support groups, their potential or
possible solutions.
They lead half-dead lives in darkness.
It is due to systematic brainwashing.
Even relatively more educated women do not manage to escape in India.
For example you will find women with post graduate qualifications
wasting enormous amounts of their time in hell holes as house-wives.
Oh, believe me.. it's quite the same in LATAM. A women can be considered an
equal until the moment she gets married and has her first baby; however,
there are no support groups for harassment here and probably won't be right
now due laws; they simply don't care.
Now, the "ending as housewives" is something that society has more to do
with; I guess a female group oriented to laws would be your target more
than a female LUG.
We follow a community-based developmental model and for us the more
number of contributors and developers we have the merrier it will be.
If you do not know how people of a particular part of a community are
going to contribute, then how can you expect those people to
contribute?
The world is not so rosy.
It also makes sense to work together with other kinds of support groups.
Yes indeed, however, unless we start taking a bit of sand we won't be able
to make the beach. I read you and I get the point of not
having opportunities; believe me, I live in a country where we are
completely excluded; however, when you want to activate a females LUG you
can't solve world hunger; first baby steps and scaring people might not be
the best way. As I have been saying, good examples and role models will
make a difference.
Groups with focus are better suited for development. The quality of
a
distro will improve immensely because of that.
It is a fact that Fedora lacks many packages because of lack of focus
for various communities (Even I need to compile a large number of
packages from source).
Corporate developmental models will end up making Fedora a nursery for
corporate robot development
and so we should care.
Even if I 50/50 agree with this part, this would be more a topic to discuss
at FEmSCo, there have been large efforts into make Fedora more widely
usable and those have been quite effective, however, I wouldn't like to see
a "Fedora Hello Kitty" :)
Best
A. Mani
At the end I guess that discussing is the way to really create a guidelines
that will allow us to really help and guide women and provide a healthy
environment where we all (female, gay, religion and skin color) don't
suffer from exclusion.
--
A. Mani
CU, ASL, AMS, CLC, CMS
http://www.logicamani.in
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