Re: [gnome-women] What's the plan?

[Clytie Siddall <clytie riverland net au>]

I'm really glad to see we're doing something focussed to encourage  
female participation in Gnome. :)

On 29/05/2006, at 2:24 AM, Murray Cumming wrote:
> > 1. Track the numbers:
> >   We need to know the gender percentages in the GNOME Foundation  
> > every
> > year, so we can roughly measure our progress.
>
> It looks like this will happen:
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/found

Potentially awkward. :(

We need to make gender recording optional: some people aren't happy  
with being told to log their gender, and some don't fit in the binary  
male/female classification.

A checkbox item like:
_________________

We are keen to make GNOME an environment where gender doesn't define  
your opportunities. In doing this, it really helps if we know who's  
participating: we can evaluate our program and improve it. You don't  
have to give us this information, but we'd really appreciate it if  
you would. Thankyou. :)

Gender stats

I identify myself as

[ ]	male
[ ]	female
[ ]	currently neither
[ ]	I do not wish to give this information

We know gender is a spectrum, including many very complex situations  
which we don't really understand well enough to describe here. If you  
can help us make GNOME a friendlier place for people like you, please  
email gender_all gnome org
__________________
> > We could do a one-off
> > survey now.

As long as you're careful and considerate about the gender spectrum  
and privacy, as above (which is only an approximation: somebody can  
probably do it much better than I can), it could be useful.
> > 2. Special treatment:
> >   - Persuade existing GNOME developers to give extra time and  
> > patience
> > to potential female contributors? I have very little time, but I'd be
> > prepared to dedicate some time and be unusually (for me) patient for
> > this good cause.

Funnel it through Gnome-women and a mentors listing. We can refer  
people to you and help support them.

> >   - Create a wiki page with lists of potential mentors (and their  
> > areas
> > of expertise), and potential people to be mentored? This would be  
> > good
> > for the male contributors too, of course.

Good in general. We discussed this on Ubuntu-Women recently, and were  
concerned that anyone listed as a mentor is recommended personally as  
having the skills and attitude needed.

> >   - How do we avoid this looking like a place for men to find women?
> > Would a code of conduct help?

YES. Plus a procedure for reporting and managing breaches of it.
> I created a general mentoring page.

Good start. :)

> Hopefully it will fill up:
> http://live.gnome.org/MentoredProjects
> But the above questions remain.

OK, I've added myself (mentor for female translators). This is part  
of something I'm doing through the network of women-in-computing  
groups, and hope to continue for some time, through a number of  
practical applications of our work. I'm happy to focus part of that  
at Gnome.
> > 3. Code of Conduct?
> > GNOME should probably have a code of conduct like Ubuntu's. It  
> > would be
> > a quick way to stop a lot of noise (which is offputting for all), we
> > could specifically discourage some obvious anti-female behaviour. As
> > well as outlawing the worst examples, it could advertise us as a  
> > place
> > where women might be able to avoid some of the behaviour they
> > anticipate.

Definitely.
> > 4. Role Models:
> >   Publicise existing female contributors and new female members once
> > they are established.
> >   - Make sure they are on Planet GNOME?
> >   - Make sure they are speaking at GUADEC?
> >   - Articles in GNOME Journal / gnomedesktop.org?

Anything that publicizes our participation. Example is very  
motivating. The Profiles page at Debian-Women is a good example of  
this sort of work.

http://women.alioth.debian.org/profiles/index.en.html
> > I've read in an FAQ somewhere that some women are put-off by some of
> > these things - treating women differently from the start, and  
> > pointing
> > out the few women who are involved. But we can't please all the  
> > people
> > all the time, and I don't see how to take action that isn't in
> > contradiction to something, and I don't see how we can make things
> > worse.

I think most of us would much rather be anonymous. We often, um, hide  
behind male or non-easily-gendered names so we won't be classified.  
This isn't only about avoiding hostility, but also about personality:  
we're not public people.

However, there is a real need for rôle-models here, so we need to  
work up some courage and step forward.

I can't appear anywhere like GUADEC, since I'm bedridden and can't  
travel, except electronically ;) , but I'll do what I can.

What's our timeline on GUADEC now? Maírin and Anca, we could combine  
some of this discussion with our paper (we need to get that started).

from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm  
Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN