Dear users, developers and other contributors of Open Source,
I write this letter as a contributor of Ubuntu, and as a member of the Ubuntu Women project.
As a Woman and an Open Source contributor, I see a number of behaviours within the Open Source community that are quite counterproductive to the community. Many of these behaviours often go unnoticed, and this is a shame.
These counterproductive behaviours of which I write, may seem common-place to many people, and they may even be humorous to some. However these behaviours, to many women, are discriminatory, offensive and discouraging. Considering women represent approximately 50% of global population, which is approximately 3.35 billion people, these behaviours are not behaviours that a community that thrives on growth, should be allowing or encouraging. We should not be discouraging 50% of our potential users and contributors.
Currently, according to FLOSSpols, in 2006, the average female representation in Open Source is 1.5%. This is compared to 28% female representation in the proprietary software industry. You can read the FLOSSpols report at http://www.flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf
You see, this is not merely a rant, there are real reasons for this letter. We are seriously lagging behind proprietary software, and many other industries, in the area of gender equality. We can do much better than that!
There are a number of ways to curb the discouraging behaviours and all it takes is vigilance. One must be vigilant in their communications, and discourage or admonish bad behaviour. Unfortunately, there is no single demographic guilty of these behaviours, as they are not solely perpetrated by Men. Yes, you heard me correctly — some women are guilty also! This makes the task of vigilance ever so much harder, but for the sake of potentially doubling our community, it is well worth it!
As a Woman and an Open Source contributor, I implore you. Do not make jokes about us, just because we are female. Do not belittle, stereotype or patronise us, based on our gender. Do not assume that we are using Open Source so that you can ask us questions of private nature, or out on a date. Most importantly, do not stand by and watch as other people do these things.
This is a big thing I am asking of you, I know. But it is not only for me that I ask. It is for the 3 and a half billion mothers, daughters, sisters and friends that I share this earth with — that WE share this earth with. This is for everyone.
This is for Open Source.
I sincerely Thank You for reading this letter, and encourage you to pass it on.
Melissa Draper
Open Source advocate, and Ubuntu Member
edit: corrected population guesstimate. Please disregard this notice.
@Mike Basinger
Please do. I didn’t think to post it there too.
Pingback: Ubuntu | Richard Johnson: Say NO! to discrimination
Wanted you to know I am passing on the word about this in my blog and hope you take the time to stop by and see what I had to say on the subject myself.
http://linuxfreedom-technoshaun.blogspot.com/
–Shaun
Thanks for your post. I’ll try to read more about it before commenting further, and i hope i will understand better and act against this as much as i can. Note that i’m working at a commercial place where we create opensource software, half of the people being women (including developers), and AFAIK, hopefully nobody ever complained about gender discrimination. I’ll be more cautious about this issue in the future, thanks for your links.
My wife is a female Ubuntu user, yet she’s not counted in any of those “Linux by gender” polls. She’s never seen any of those polls, and I don’t think she’s even ever heard of them. She’s a woman using her computer for whatever she wants to do with it, and it does it for her perfectly. For the non-developers making the switch to Linux, they’re not counted in these polls, so who knows what the ratio really is.
I think the problem with these OS by gender statistics is that the Linux ones are voluntary, and usually only answered by the “hardcore” Linux users, whereas the Windows ones usually get their data by spyware or other non-voluntary means. I’ve been using Windows since 3.1, and I don’t recall ever being asked my gender for any Windows user statistics.
This gender issue should not be an issue at all. At first I was rather surprised to see it in my OSS news feeds, and hadn’t seen this sort of behavior in the Linux community myself.
As a head developer of an online dating site, I hear about this sort of thing all too much. I’ve even had people try to pick up my wife right in front of me. Seriously, wtf? I know she’s awesome and everything, but what do people think being that disrespectful is gonna achieve?
Mellisa.. say no to positive discrimination !! it is a bad thing !! ;) I dont see a reason why we should treat women differently than to other human beings, all people deserves respect, regardless the genre.
Your argument is logical and critical. Your insight is crucial. It affirms gender equality and something we all like, free software. Thank you for contribution.
I also have a Q. I appreciate the ‘$name used $browser on $OS’ so much that I hope you’re willing to give me some insight how to get it running on my WP blog. Thanks so much.
A few people have asked. It is the browser sniff plugin, with slight customising on my behalf. See: http://priyadi.net/archives/2005/03/29/wordpress-browser-detection-plugin/
Cybe R. Wizard wrote: “slaves cannot be freed; they must free themselves.” (comment #24)
That’s right, blame the victim. Takes all the responsibility away from you to change your behaviour. Sad, but not surprising.
Great post Melissa, found it when someone posted a link to the wikichix mailing list.
Count me in. It will be a nice world when we all can keep our gender on the back burner and deal with issues at hand without prejudice. Someday, someday…
I can identify by second-hand, since both my wife and my daughter are computer buffs and Linux geeks as well – each with our own computer and our own desks. I can say that this is one daughter who is being raised without any silly ideas about what women can’t do with technology.
Pingback: Ubuntu-blogi » Arkisto » Avoin kirje avoimen lähdekoodin yhteisölle
After reading the post, I wonder why planet.ubuntu-women.org is separate from main ubuntu planet…?
This Open Letter touches the very philosophy of geekdom, just as the blog title advertises. Its idea is, at the same time, completely right and completely wrong.
Let’s start with where I agree wholeheartedly. The open source and free software community, like any other community, shouldn’t discriminate – neither between genders, ages, sexual orientations, cultures, religions or lack thereof, disabilities, virginity or lack thereof, etc. Nobody should belittle, patronise or objectify anybody on any of these or other criteria. We need the bravery to stand up against this type of patronising and other inappropriate behaviour. For a large part, this community has always been meritocratic – merits and behaviour are amongst the one things we should judge people by.
However, the open source and free software community has also historically been – and still is – a very open and broadminded community, and it shouldn’t cease to be just to become political correct. There has always been quite a bit of humour on any possible topic: nerdy jokes, Battlestar Galactica, Nathalie Portman, religion, stereotypes (about men and women and other groups), the shell output of “make love”, etc. As Chad Morris put it: like it or not, the gender divide has always been fertile ground for comedy. As long as this humour doesn’t become excessive (and I know beforehand people will disagree where the line should be drawn) I don’t believe that this should stop – it would make the community, and geek life, a lot more boring.
As Melissa correctly observed: some women are also “guilty” (Melissa’s word) of joining in right now. Please don’t stop. Continue to bring them on, the jokes about us, men, being terrible at cooking and cleaning, being generally insensitive. We all will benefit from a life with a few more smiles and laughs. [I also concur with Gordon Pearce: asking men to stop joking about women is asking to be treated differently, because you want to be treated like everyone else.]
On a different, but very similar and related subject: in addition to this open letter, Melissa also requested a member of a free software community to cease posting content that was (in her eyes) family-unfriendly on a community planet. The content in question was very innocent (even by American standards): it drew our attention to a iPod-inspired poster for an adult toy that would pass any rating. The guy became disillusioned by the lack of open-mindedness in the community (something he hoped to find here and values very much), and resigned.
Melissa, I really believe in your great intentions – I know you are trying to do the right thing. To a certain extent, you *are* doing the right thing. I know there is a lot of misconduct going on, we must stand up against it. But please, please, please don’t push this to the other extreme of political correctness.
If you can’t find the middle line because of the openness/tolerance the open source and free software community values (or at least I have the impression a significant majority does), find it for the demography of the community. Pushing for Thomas Bowdler-like puritanism and humour-, innuendo- and controversy-deprived political correctness won’t bring in female technology-enthusiasts en masse, but it will (and does) kill the enthusiasm of our current (although predominantly male) membership.
As for the dating clause in the Open letter – I’ve long given up hope a female geek will ask me out on a technology forum. Real life is out there. Given the male/female ratio, I can understand that from a woman’s point of view, such requests are neither enjoyable nor flattering in the given context. So I agree this can constitute “inappropriate behaviour” on technical fora – and I support Melissa in her battle on that point.
Re: post 56 by judas_iscariote, none the less. I find it interesting, yet not surprising, to note that Judas is using Suse Linux by his comrades at Novell. Seems that he has put the silver coupons he received from our Masters of Software to good use. :-)
On topic: That 1.5% figure is surprisingly low. Here’s to hoping that will increase sooner rather than later. I wonder if some female hackers simply resort to use male/neutral aliases to avoid the kind of treatment they evidently receive. I would understand that, but that’s still rather… sad really.
@Adhemar
There is a time and a place for everything. A user wanting to find out about an Ubuntu problem is not going to feel in any way welcome if they are greeted with jokes ridiculing them. You may like these jokes in these situations (let me know when you are next seeking a support answer, so I can fling some at you), but you are but one person.
As for Stephan’s post, of course it is on the low-end of the scale, but nonetheless inappropriate for a multinational, multicultural community site such as planet.ubuntu.com. The item was a sex toy, and for this reason alone the advertisement would be highly inappropriate in certain cultures. In fact, at least one of these cultures could see a woman jailed, or stoned to death, for simply looking at the site, or having that feed aggregated — regardless of whether she actually looked at the post or read it.
While the content of the post might not be a problem in the US or northern EU, the story is different elsewhere. We cannot assume that just because something is culturally or socially ok to, or for us, that the same applies elsewhere.
I’ve posted the following on Hobbsee’s Blog at
http://hobbsee.wordpress.com/2007/05/29/some-thoughts-on-free-speech/
Oh boy, seems like some US citizen do not understand a few thing (and guys from other countries too.)
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, was created to protect political speech, not to say Melissa show us your boobs, Sarah suck this or anything of that sort.
What would you do if a guy call your Mother, Sister or Daughter a cunt or a bitch or whatever terms idiots like to use?
You would beat the crap out of them, so why is it OK to show disrespect to the Women of Ubuntu and of Linux in general, to debase them.
In most civilize country you can sue someone for misconduct in the workplace, that’s include verbal harassment, sexual harassment and so on.
Every evolving community recognize the fact, that acting with disrespect toward a group of people is unacceptable.
So why should the Ubuntu community be different?
If you say “It’s part of the Geek mystic”, then you should be ashame, todays Geeks are the God and Goddess of technology, they are the Gadget Gurus, and with knowledge come responsibilities.
If you don’t understand why Melissa, Sarah and all the other Women in the community are pissed off, THEN YOU ARE IDIOTS.
The First Amendment of any country should be “SHOW RESPECT TO EACH OTHER” (The Ubuntu Ideology)
Go see the definition of the Ubuntu ideology in wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28idealogy%29
P.S.: If I’ve use words that have offended some of you, please accept my apologies, they were only used to prove a point.
“I know there is a lot of misconduct going on, we must stand up against it. But please, please, please don’t push this to the other extreme of political correctness.”
And please, please, don’t silence those of us saying ‘you’re driving us away’ by claiming we’re pushing to the other extreme.
The current situation IS NOW CURRENTLY driving women out of the open source community. Including me. I’m one of many who are so tired of the ‘geek humour’ that we sit in the fringe of the community, in the women-safe spaces. I’m not offended anymore. I’m just too damned tired of it to deal with it. Too much noise. Not enough signal.
You acknowledge that we (geeks in general) need to stand up against misbehaviour. People like Melissa are trying to do that. Comments like yours just make her job harder, because it makes it look like you think she’s overreacting.
Please stop using your fear of a pendulum swing in the other direction to push her down. Trust me, there’s plenty of room before we reach the middle.
Sheesh.
Oh lord. I’m so tired about certain people calling others sexually repressed.
Planet Ubunu seriously needs an editorial policy becuase it’s just getting out of hand. Why do people think they need to post every little thing to a Ubuntu blog, and then complain when they find out that no, not everyone shares that views, that it’s not actually Ubuntu relevant, and that it can be offensive? To those people: You have a blog with tags; use them like everyone else figured out already. You can choose to send only certain posts to Planets.
And believe me, the rest of us will thank you for your discretion.
/rant.
@ Jeremy: Planet Ubuntu has as tagline “a window into the world, work and lives of Ubuntu developers and contributors”. Hint: it doesn’t say window on Ubuntu. The only requirement for posts to be aggregated, as far as I know, is that they are made by Ubuntu contributors. [There is a blueprint proposed on Launchpad to specify additional constraints in an editorial policy, but so far no such thing is agreed upon.]
Posts on Planet Ubuntu do not have to be about Ubuntu. The planet is not the Fridge. Musings, wedding announcements, write-ups, rants about anything, etc. – all this is what the Planet concept is about.
@ Jenn: It was never my intention to make Melissa look like she’s overreacting when she’s fighting discrimination, belittlement, objectification of women, unasked-for question of private nature. In this, she has my full support; and I thought I made this clear. I am not pushing Melissa down.
However, this comment space seemed to me to be the appropriate place to express my reservations and fear of the “pendulum on the other side” when it comes to jokes. Melissa’s rebutal “There is a time and a place for everything” fills my head with doom scenarios where anything even slightly ironic is forever banned to humorix.org and the Onion, and no place else.
The problem with abstract concepts as “humour” is that I can’t be sure we’re talking about the same incidents. The jokes that came to mind (and which I’d hate to miss even though they possibly might upset a very sensitive person) might be of a completely different nature than the ones Melissa was thinking about when she wrote this Open Letter.
The contexts we’re talking about might also differ. Not all community fora are alike. I’m inclined to agree more with Melissa’s rebuttal that “a user wanting to find out about an Ubuntu problem is not going to feel in any way welcome if they are greeted with jokes ridiculing them.” than with her request “Do not make jokes about us” (at all). A silk glove around our helping hand to (novice) users is probably a very good idea; but I’d like to question the idea that this is absolutely necessary on the planets, contributor’s IRC meetings, Slashdot, etc. as well.
Gah this is exactly why I am anti women’s movements. What a storm in a tea cup!
I do not endorse or participate in any women-specific groups because I believe in individual merits and people being able to fit in according to their abilities, interests and attributes.
I don’t need or want special treatment as a women and I certainly would never expect a community (male dominated or otherwise) to CHANGE because I wanted to join it.
I have never had any gender discrimination ,or harassment issues, largely because I don’t allow it to happen or bother me. I am me and I achieve accordingly for myself. Not despite or because I am female.
And for the record I am on Shephan’s side on this one, his posts were in no way offensive, neither the one welcoming Sarah (unsubtle and a bit over enthusiastic maybe) nor the iGASM one (please it is at most a bit risque…).
And frankly if someone is going to be stoned to death for that showing up on her screen, perhaps you should focus your energy on addressing that problem.
And if you are uncomfortable with your own sexuality, why not address that?
The rest of us are educated adults, and don’t need you to be a nanny for us.
This is also the reason I always declined being listed on planet.
Kthnaxbye.
Pingback: philosophical geekess » This past week
@JaneW
Storms in teacups are how change comes about. Think of the most influential changes in the world. How many of those involved 0 conflict?
I too agree that one should be judged on their merits. I also happen to believe that everyone should feel comfortable enough to learn and allowed to fit in so as to exhibit these merits. Harassment robs many people of this, and turning a blind eye to the situation is no form of justice.
As a woman, I do not want special treatment either. I especially do not want that special treatment that asks me to show photos of the private parts of my body, or that which leaves me with with unanswered support questions because instead of having my question answered, I receive special treatment in the form of ridicule and belittlement.
If you really have not *ever* had *any* gender discrimination or harassment issues then you have lived a truly blessed life. I have missed out on jobs, and been told explicitly it was because I was female and hence for this reason alone incapable of the task — with absolutely no chance to prove myself. This is discrimination. I have been harassed both online and in real life because I am female. Yet, my experiences are tame compared to many I have heard. These things do not happen because one chooses to be affected by them.
And for the record, if my first contact with the Ubuntu community had been to see a picture of an sex toy on planet.ubuntu.com, I would have assumed I had come to the wrong place and not have gone any further, as I came for linux and free software, *not* for discussion of adult novelties. I would go elsewhere for that — all the squatted sites with adult advertisements for instance. It has absolutely nothing to do with my sexuality and that was highly indecent of you to suggest so.
“The rest of us” also includes those under 16/18/21 or whatever is the legal age of consent in the many many countries throughout the world. It also include those of primary/grade school ages. “The rest of us” are not all adults. Think of the children, please.
Pingback: Ubuntu | Melissa Draper: This past week
RESPECT, it’s all about RESPECT.
Adhemar:
I don’t mind people posting tips and tricks, “what happened today”, weddings, things like that. I think that’s wonderful to post for people, like me, who want to peer into that window. Yet I don’t see what a bit of tasteless (funny to others) blog about a sex toy has to do about any of that. Let’s go back to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct on this, for example: 2) “Be Respectful [...] It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.”
When something crosses the line into making people uncomfortable, I believe it doesn’t have to be posted to the Planet. I’ve never had such an issue with the Planet before (and I’ve read it for months now) because people seem to use discretion.
Pingback: Jonathan Hitchcock - Vhata Vas Hyah
I am a female geek, living in the italian open source community since a lot of time (about 1997). I am now president of the local LUG, and have been coordinator of many community projects .
Melissa is right, there is some kind of discrimination. As someone pointed out there were no examples, here are some:
* just a couple of weeks ago a guy emailed me for some info about Bind configuration I wrote a lot of time ago. I replied and suggested him some links, and exchanged two-three technical emails with him. Of course I did not talk about personal, and was surely not flirting with him, but now he is filling my mailbox with “hi how are you today” emails and “I found your photo on the net” and so on. Filtering them is easy, but it’s annoying to know that if you reply to a technical question you get that.
* when I am presented to some man in a “geek-situation” the most frequent comment is “wow, you’re a gal!”. Please, men hearing, that is a STUPID comment! It is quite evident, and really annoying :)
* I own a consulting firm with two male collegues. It often happens that we visit customers which have technical staff. The technitians always address my (male) collegue and presume I’m there for non-technical reasons (a couple of times they told me they thought I was his girlfriend). I have learned to have that stop making technical suggestions (usually the guys who do that are not-so-skilled ;)
That said, it is indeed true that the same people become very respectful when they understand I _am_ quite technically skilled. There are exceptions, of course, as the one whom emails I am filtering, but there are not very frequent. And moreover, I sometimes feel that I’m getting more respect than an “equivalent” man, because they know I had to walk an harder way. And of course, jokes do not hurt me (as long as they are jokes), and I usually reply telling jokes about men :)
And, things are getting better. The “oh-but-you-are-a-girl” thing, or people trying to harass on IRC or via email, are getting less and less frequent, also thanks to the rest of the gang (mostly males, of course) who are very helpful.
So, I think that the problem is just on the surface, and so solvable by self-conscience. Men, please realize that you’re doing wrong when you do that, and women, please realize that you’d better reply with some wits and make them realize ;)
Melissa’s letter is good in that, because it’s making more men conscious of what they do wrong. I would not make a storm in a teacup of that, but I look forward of things going better and better ;)
Another comment: I assume that the 28% vs 1.5% is because the free software community is based on respect. Work is paid by respect, not (or not only) by money. Probably women get less respect, so they are less present.
You letter is right on target.. I contributed for several years to many projects, under a gender neutral name, never correcting when i was referred to as “he”.
In the past year i have used a clearly female name, and it is completely different.
many projects are just fine – nobody cares as long as the code does what it says it does.
but other projects, maybe 40% of those i’m involved in, the response is anything from continuously having it pointed out that i’m female, to degrading comments that i either let continue or waste my time telling the idiot to stop talking about my boobs.
There are fucktards everywhere, but the mostly remoralising is when the rest of the community lets it stand. Someone can say “I’ll rape you next” directly and the community ignores it.
It becomes a place where i *do* feel threatened, but most of all i don’t get a good feeling from contributing anymore. I feel like i’m wading against the current and not welcome — and i’m questioning why i ever want to help this community in the first place.
Hi there!
Interesting letter, no doubt, and although I respect and try to ensure the ideal described within whenever I can, I cannot let to notice the way you sometimes handle issues in a way of near-dictatorship, disregarding any respect for those who have a different point of view.
Hi,
Chiming in a bit late. I just wanted to say that I strongly agree with this article. If anyone wants a good example of the sexism inherent in the Open Source community, and in the geek community in general, they just need to look at Slashdot’s 2006 April Fools “joke”.
Pingback: La représentation des femmes dans la communauté Ubuntu | openSYD
Pingback: Un projet pour les femmes dans le monde du libre | openSYD