X.Org Women Outreach Program Only Turns Up Two Applicants So Far

[phoronix]

Phoronix: X.Org Women Outreach Program Only Turns Up Two Applicants So Far

Earlier this month it was announced that the X.Org Foundation would participate in the next FOSS Outreach Program for Women (OPW) organized by the GNOME Foundation. This program is very controversial but one thing is for sure: there isn't much interest from women in getting involved with X.Org...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTc5MTI

[johnc]

lol. what a load of horse shit this is.

[peppercats]

this happens every time someone attempts to cater to a minority group
surprise, there's a reason they're called a minority group. It's not sexism when there's no women to hire. Now please get rid of this disgusting and offensive affirmative action tier program.

"genderqueer, genderfluid, or genderfree regardless of gender presentation or assigned sex at birth"

...

[johnny]

i think the "so far" is the key part

These things take time. It's a bit to soon to be passing judgement. This is a multi-year effort, not a multi-month.

[peppercats]

These things take time. It's a bit to soon to be passing judgement. This is a multi-year effort, not a multi-month.

And while open source is waiting for this multi-year effort to pay off, proprietary desktops will be leagues ahead because they have no problem hiring the best talent regardless of age, race, or gender.

[johnny]

And while open source is waiting for this multi-year effort to pay off, proprietary desktops will be leagues ahead because they have no problem hiring the best talent regardless of age, race, or gender.

i really doubt the miniscule amount funded by the effort would push the tide one way or the other.

Seems like a lot of other important things are missing, like developing a consistent user experience. And getting cooperation from hardware vendors.

[nerdopolis]

this happens every time someone attempts to cater to a minority group
surprise, there's a reason they're called a minority group. It's not sexism when there's no women to hire. Now please get rid of this disgusting and offensive affirmative action tier program.


...

Theres about ~50% or so people that are women though... Not really what I call a "minority"

[stiiixy]

Maybe Mick's Missus could chime in with an article regarding her experience in/out of IT? Not as a for or against piece, mind you. Just simply stating (where she's comfortable talking about it. Your private lives are just that) how her experience has been thus far. With a heavily moderated thread. There has been some very good points thrown around above already, such as people with talent already being employed regardless of *bureaucratic title*. It'd be a differant case considering you're independant*, and you're both working togethor which could lead to +'s and -'s.

My own personal experience with 'women in IT' after asking about twenty of them at work and form family (a few years ago now) was a resounding 'couldn't give a fuck' attitude. All of them. Not a majority.

My intuition lead me to believe they couldn't give a fuck about IT....

Their words, not mine. Okay, white lie; one individual's words, and the attitude's of the rest were pretty much the same. Even the one who was working in IT at the time; it was a job until something else popped up.

So long as the respective training curriculae allows for women et cetera, without the gender bias and sexism et cetera I personally don't see there needs to be any more 'support' programme's targetting women. Targetted marketting would a case outside that general rule of course. But for the masses, why bother? I'm happy to be enlightened though, otherwise I wouldn't be making a post! It's certainly an interesting field of view, especially for the feller's!



*Big kudo's by the way for sticking it out and lasting this long. I understand the difficulty's of doin'-it-yourself. And it's hard to give it up!

[stiiixy]

Theres about ~50% or so people that are women though... Not really what I call a "minority"

They are when you're talking about representation as a group in IT. Same goes with constrution. Men are a minority in child care.

[Szzz]

Why do we need these special programs. No one prevents women from studying CS, having IT jobs, etc. If they are minority in this area than they probably don't want to do it.