2010/6/18 Katarina Machalkova
: So, baring the social atmosphere, what is left besides a lack of interest or attraction of/to female users?
Let me give you few examples:
* lack of female role models within the community (female contributors are invisible)
That's true. What do you think are the reasons of this?
Well, if you ask me - we're moving in vicious circle. Female contributors are either non-existent or invisible. Thus, other women see no role models ( == successfull female contributors, someone who makes you think "geez, if she could succeed, I can do it as well") and they feel less motivated to start to contribute. I'm not saying it's the only demotivation factor, though, but it's certainly one of them. As a result, few women contribute and other women see no role models. I have no clue how to break that circle. The paper I linked above gives some recommendations, though.
* hostile environment (sexist comments, jokes & blogposts, and nobody protesting them)
Does this really happen in relation to the openSUSE community?
Short answer: Yes Longer answer: Yes, but I'm not gonna point my finger at particular people or particular blogposts for personal reasons. It's not a huge blow such as death threats [1] or pr0n pics [2], it's subtle rather than overt, but it definitely happens fB. [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-women/2005/06/msg00235.html [2] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/CouchDB_talk -- \\\\\ Katarina Machalkova \\\\\\\__o OOo developer __\\\\\\\'/_ & hedgehog painter