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As part of the ongoing Linux Documentation Project's HOWTO series, we now have... HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux. Of particular interest might be the Why are there so few women in Linux? section, seeing as how it applies to all technology-related areas.
(I stole this from kuro5hin... and some of the comments there are interesting, particularly the defensive ones along the lines of "I don't see why I should stop making sexist jokes just for some women with no sensayuma".)
Most of the points that are made in the HOWTO could easily be translated to other groups, though. The examples, like...
"A creative director for a leading development team cheerfully described to me how its Q.A. team made a prostitute sport a game's logo on her body during a combination gonzo video/gangbang session."
are specifically gender-related but there are equivalents. For instance, "Advertising, media say computers are for men" could be "Advertising, media say computers are for white middle-class single men". The Do's and don't's of encouraging women in Linux basically boil down to a mix of how not to intimidate and alienate newcomers, and some basic sexism awareness. This is not geek-specific. People alienate and discriminate against those from other groups that enter their domains, and Linux is still quite a small specialised subset of the tech field (which is bad enough in itself). I imagine that someone who was openly gay would have "queer" jokes made about them, too. |
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