Why Aren't More Women in Open Source

March 6th, 2007

The Third Bit in reviewing the book, Why Why Aren't More Women in Science?:

Several years ago, Michelle Levesque and I looked at the gender balance in open source (see “Open Source, Cold Shoulder” in the November 2004 issue of Software Development). While the male:female ratio in the software industry is between 7:1 and 12:1, depending on how you measure it, the ratio in open source is at least 200:1, and probably worse. For a community that talks so loudly about freedom and rights, I think that’s shameful; I think it’s even more shameful that so many people in that community choose not to notice, or say (rather defensively), “Well, it’s not my fault.” I think some social refactoring is long overdue; I think that programs like the one Margolis and Fisher led at Carnegie-Mellon, and described in their book Unlocking the Clubhouse, matter a lot more than copyright reform or the fight against software patents. Sadly, though, our profession is self-selected for people who don’t agree, and that, I think, is the greatest shame of all.

(via Michael Bernstein)

Comments
1
Lawrence Krubner - 9:04 pm 3/7/2007

Is the problem that a lot of open source projects are started by graduate students, and women are under-represented in the grad programs of most computer science departments? I am curious about where the starting point is for the 200:1 ratio.

2
Shelley - 9:23 pm 3/7/2007

I think it's a lot of things. Not as many women in the programs, not getting a lot of positive feedback for participation, not having the time because of other obligations, not having as much opportunity, getting as much respect, not being paid enough to have the spare time…

It's not a single thing. It would be easier if we could point to 'it' and then all work against 'it'. But no such luck.

3
nikkiana - 12:26 am 3/8/2007

I can only speak for myself here…. I work for a company that does web development based on Drupal, an open source PHP/MySQL content management system. I have my hands covered in open source goo all the time, but why haven't I made a single commit to the Drupal development servers?

One, my general specialty tends to be on the theming and fine tuning end of the development process rather than in module development. The code I write tends to be project specific, rather than reusable for the community as a whole.

Two, on the rare occasion I do write a module or make a significant update to one, I generally chicken out on committing it because I don't really want to make the commitment to support the module in the future.

Three, lack of confidence in my own code. I'm out of my element once you take me out of the theme. Sure, I can program but I'm not terribly comfortable doing it…. and while working's good enough for me, I'm always afraid that someone's going to open up my code and say, "Yuck! She doesn't know what she's doing!"

Four, I'm constantly afraid of stepping on someone's toes… What if I pick to update a module for someone who's particularly territorial about their module and gets mad at me for submitting a patch? Am I supposed to ask first before I jump in?

I don't really consider any of this stuff a "me being a girl" thing, though. It's just me being me.

On a side note, I think it would be interesting to find out how open source programmers got hooked up with the projects they're working on and what their motivations are for what they do. I wonder if asking that question might be a little more telling as to why more women don't jump in…

4
fp - 12:01 pm 3/8/2007

Hey. Happy International Women's Day.

5
chipp - 12:55 pm 3/9/2007

I think it has something to do with that females are usually stronger than males for facing the society, so they don't need a place to hide from them.

We should ask, like Nikkiana said, what are our motivations to get hooked up with FLOSS. Honestly, one is getting into a safer place, I think.

Thanks to all those who have contributed to the discussion. Comments are now closed, but you can contact the author of the post directly.

Prev: Wither Away Ajax?
Next: Freebasing, and not the Crack kind