HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux (希望大家可以得到借鉴:)

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http://segfault.info/girls/howto.html

HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux
Val Henson
Copyright (c) 2002 Val Henson This document may be reproduced or distributed i
n any form, without prior permission, provided that all such copies or distrib
utions include this copyright statement and the warranty disclaimer contained
in this paragraph. This document is provided on an "AS IS" basis only, with no
warranties, express or implied. All usage of the information in this document
is at your own risk.

2002-10-29

Revision History
Revision 1.1 2002-10-29 VH
Minor rewrites, typo fixes
Revision 1.0 2002-10-25 JYG
Fixed validation errors, added license, abstract, versioning, etc.
Revision .9 2002-10-01 VH
Initial version


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Table of Contents

Introduction
Audience
What problem? Sexism is dead!
About the author
Why are there so few women in Linux?
Women are less confident
Women have fewer opportunities for friendship or mentoring
Women are discouraged from an early age
Computing perceived as non-social
Lack of female role models
Games, classes aimed towards men
Advertising, media say computers are for men
Life-work balance more important to women
Reasons women avoid Linux specifically
Do's and don't's of encouraging women in Linux
Don't tell sexist jokes
Do protest sexist jokes
Don't call people bitches
Do show some respect
Don't take the keyboard away
Do give directions and explain them clearly
Don't make sexual advances towards women
Do act friendly
Don't complain about the lack of women in computing
Do encourage women in computing
Don't stare and point when women arrive
Do treat new arrivals politely
Don't treat women stereotypically
Do treat women as normal people
Don't criticize too much
Do compliment
Don't invite only male speakers
Do ask women to speak
Don't micro-specialize
Do discuss broader topics
Don't make your meetings hard to attend
Do make meetings easy to attend
Don't make new people feel unwelcome
Do help new people get involved
Don't underestimate girlfriends or wives
Do treat girlfriends and wives as independent people
But I don't do that!
A. LinuxChix
Abstract

This article explains some of the difficulties and biases women face in the Li
nux community and examines various strategies for addressing those difficultie
s in order to encourage more participation by women.

Introduction
At the 2002 Ottawa Linux Symposium, I hosted a LinuxChix Birds Of a Feather se
ssion. During the BOF and throughout the conference, I heard the same set of q
uestions:

"My girlfriend hates Windows, how can I encourage her to use Linux?"

"Almost no women attend my local LUG. How can I fix this?"

"Why aren't there more women in open source?"

Clearly, people in the Linux community would like for more women to be involve
d in Linux, but most people don't know why so few women are involved or how to
change that. This HOWTO is an effort to summarize the explanations, recommend
ations, and opinions of the women who already are interested and active in Lin
ux. This document began with the verbatim recommendations of the women who att
ended the LinuxChix BOF, and was added to by many more women in the months fol
lowing the original BOF. In other words, this HOWTO represents the feelings an
d opinions of real women involved in Linux. While we represent the women who "
made it," we still have fairly important insights into why other women left or
never entered the Linux community, as well as being keenly aware of the press
ures which are currently pushing us out of the community.

In this HOWTO, we'll talk about why women stay out of computing in general, wh
y they stay away from Linux in particular, and what you can do to help encoura
ge women in Linux. We hope that this HOWTO will result in more women using, in
stalling, and developing Linux.

Audience
This document is intended mainly for the male Linux enthusiast who would like
to see more women involved in Linux. Its secondary audience is both men and wo
men who have been too busy having fun with Linux and computers to sit down and
think about why most women don't share their interests. We hope you'll come a
way from this HOWTO with some understanding of why women stay away from Linux
and with a few ideas about what you can do to reverse that trend.

This HOWTO is not directed towards people who aren't concerned about the lack
of women in Linux, or think that women are better off staying away from Linux.
If you don't already believe that women are being driven away from Linux and
computers by external causes, this HOWTO probably won't convince you otherwise
(although it may give you some interesting avenues of research to follow up o
n).

This HOWTO is definitely not intended to help male Linux geeks find female Lin
ux geeks to date. The central paradox of women and Linux is this: often, the p
eople most anxious for more women in Linux are also the people most likely to
accidentally drive them away. Frequently, men who want more women in Linux sol
ely so they have a better chance of finding a girlfriend end up acting in ways
that end up driving women away instead! This HOWTO will try to explain which
behaviors drive women away from Linux and which behaviors encourage them.

What problem? Sexism is dead!
A sentiment I hear frequently: "What problem? There's no problem! Sexism is de
ad! Women are staying out of Linux because they want to!" If you feel this way
, you may change your opinion by the time you finish reading this HOWTO. I als
o used to believe that sexism was dead. Shortly after joining several women in
computing mailing lists, I realized how wrong I was. Week after week, women h
ave new stories about how they were discriminated against and insulted because
they were women. These stories aren't decades old, nor do they involve people
who grew up when sexism was more acceptable. These are day-to-day experiences
of today's women, in modern settings, who are being driven out of their chose
n profession by sexism. This isn't theoretical--many women actually leave the
field of computers entirely because of blatantly sexist incidents involving su
periors at work or at school.

Read the links below for my favorite example of modern-day sexism:

Initial post to the Sydney LUG mailing list, by a woman:

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00286.html

Follow-up posts diagnosing the problem as "over-stressed female":

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00290.html

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00312.html

Gee, surprise, these two responses are enough to drive her away:

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00313.html

Hysterically funny and heroic response from another woman:

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00317.html

Despite the pointed sarcasm, obnoxious man still doesn't get it:

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00319.html

A perfect response from a man who does get it:

http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00321.html

Sexism is alive and well, and it is driving women out of Linux. You can argue
that the Linux users joking about "over-stressed females" in the above posts a
re ignorant, or stupid, or well-meaning, or should in some way not be labeled
sexist, but the result of their actions is that women are leaving Linux, somet
hing we would like to prevent.

About the author
Val Henson is a Linux kernel developer, an active member of LinuxChix, and fem
ale. Her interests include operating systems research, women and computer scie
nce, and fine beer. Many other women collaborated with her to produce this HOW
TO, including:

Raven Alder

Suzi Anvin

Poppy Casper

Claudia "Texchanchan" Crowley

Steph Donovan

Joy Goodreau

Telsa Gwynne

Amy Hieter

Hanna Linder

Anna McDonald

Marcia Barret Nice

Miriam Rainsford

Carla Schroder

Jenn Vesperman

Jenny Wu

Megan "iglet" Zurawicz

Safari

And many others who wish to remain anonymous.

Why are there so few women in Linux?
Women stay out of Linux for many of the same reasons they stay out of computin
g in general, plus a few reasons specific to Linux. Many excellent books and r
esearch papers have investigated this topic in depth, but we can only summariz
e the top reasons why women avoid computing as a whole. We'll also debunk some
common theories about why women stay out of computing in general.

Three good overall resources for the topic of women in computing are:

"Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing" by Jane Margolis and Allan Fishe
r

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262133989

Women in Computing Keyword List

http://women.acm.org/search/key_list.php

(Some of the papers referred to by this list are available online, but not all
.)

"Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists" by Dr. Ellen Spertus

http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/ellens/Gender/pap/pap.html

Let's start by examining two of the most common explanations for why there are
so few women in computing: "Women just aren't interested in computers," and "
Women aren't as smart as men." The problem with the statement, "Women just are
n't interested in computers," is that it doesn't actually say anything. It's e
quivalent to answering the question, "Why is the sky blue?" with "The sky just
is blue." The implicit argument here is that women are genetically predetermi
ned from conception to not be interested in computers. Very few people are wil
ling to say exactly that in so many words, but that is the message behind the
"just aren't" theory. If you are unwilling to accept that women's lack of inte
rest in computing is genetically predetermined (and I hope you aren't willing
to accept it), you need to start exploring what environmental causes are invol
ved.

A more explicit version of this theory is that "Women aren't as smart as men,"
or any of the usual corollaries--women aren't as good at some skill as men ar
e, usually mathematics, spatial reasoning, or logic. Newsweek regularly trumpe
ts studies finding gender-related mental differences while ignoring the (far m
ore common) studies which find no difference at all. Frequently, other researc
hers are unable to duplicate the results or find flaws in the original researc
hers' methods, but those stories tend to get much less press. These studies al
so make no attempt to control for differences in the upbringing of men and wom
en. For example, studies frequently show that women have better developed ling
uistic capability in some way. This is taken as proof, at least by the press,
that women are genetically predisposed to be more verbal than men. But at the
same time, studies also show that young women are rewarded more than young men
for verbalization. The sheer existence of physical differences between male and female brains (an idea still in dispute) is not in and of it
self proof that men and women are born with differences in mental capacity. We
still need to separate out what differences are caused by genetics, and which
are caused by the environment. As a result, if you ask the experts, the only
consensus on gender-related mental differences is that there is no consensus.
This is an area of ongoing research, where results will continue to be hotly d
ebated for decades or centuries. (My personal opinion is that men and women do
have some innate, genetically based differences which result in tendencies to
wards different behaviors, but I won't guess what they are or how strongly the
y influence behavior. Human beings are extremely adaptable creatures, so I sus
pect the genetic differences are minor compared to differences in environment.
)

Something else to keep in mind is that similar arguments have been made about
many other fields when women first began joining them, from medical science to
education. For example, women couldn't be doctors because they weren't physic
ally strong enough to set broken bones, would faint at the sight of blood, or
didn't have the proper bedside manner. Those arguments were abandoned when wom
en turned out to be just as good doctors and teachers as men were. Maybe men w
ill turn out to be better at computer science than women, but history does not
support that hypothesis.

A good reference for the general topic of measuring differences between human
groups and the motivation behind those measurements is The Mismeasure of Man b
y Steven Jay Gould. Scientists have been "proving" differences in the brains a
nd bodies of groups of humans for centuries, although in hindsight both their
methods and their results were flawed. For example, Stephen Jay Gould reviews
the methods of one scientist measuring skull capacity in men and women of diff
erent races (and by implication, brain size and intelligence). The scientist o
riginally measured the volume of the skulls by packing them with linseed, whic
h is somewhat compressible, and confirmed his hypothesis that white men tended
to have larger skulls. When he later remeasured the volume of the skulls with
incompressible lead shot, he discovered that much of the differences in volum
e between the skulls disappeared. He had been subconsciously stuffing the skul
ls belonging to white males with more linseed than the skulls belonging to women or non-white men. Keep this story in mind when you read stud
ies claiming to find that some brain structure is a different size in men and
women.

Now that we've addressed some common misconceptions about women and computing,
let's look at the real reasons why women stay out of Linux and computing. I p
ersonally believe that the tendencies and behaviors I'm about to describe are
the result of the way most women are raised, in other words, they are the resu
lt of gender socialization. I'm not claiming that women are born less confiden
t, or anything else, I'm just observing general tendencies in women and pointi
ng out how Linux culture discourages people with those tendencies. Many of the
reasons I'm about to list also apply to other underrepresented groups in comp
uting or science.

Women are less confident
Women severely underestimate their abilities in many areas, but especially wit
h respect to computers. One study about this topic is Undergraduate Women in C
omputer Science: Experience, Motivation, and Culture: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/
~gendergap/papers/sigcse97/sigcse97.html

For example, while 53% of the male computer science freshman rated themselves
as highly prepared for their CS courses, 0% of the female CS freshman rated th
emselves similarly. But at the end of the year, 6 out the 7 female students in
terviewed had either an A or B average. Objective ratings (such as grade point
averages or quality and speed of programming) don't agree with most women's s
elf-estimation. I personally encountered this phenomenon: Despite plenty of ob
jective evidence to the contrary, including grades, time spent on assignments,
and high placement in a programming contest, I still didn't consider myself t
o be at the top of my class in college. Looking back objectively, it seems cle
ar to me that I was performing as well or better than many of the far more con
fident men in my class.

Women have fewer opportunities for friendship or mentoring
Like any other discipline, computer science is easier to learn when you have f
riends and mentors to ask questions of and form a community with. However, for
various reasons, men usually tend to mentor and become friends with other men
. When the gender imbalance is as large as it is in computer science, women fi
nd themselves with few or no other women to share their interests with. While
women have male friends and mentors, it's often harder and more difficult for
women to find a community and then to fit in with it. Many women leave the fie
ld who would have stayed if they had been male.

It's true that this is a feedback loop, fewer women in computing leads to fewe
r women in computing. It's important to understand that this feedback loop cau
ses women to leave computing who wouldn't have left if, all other things being
equal, they had been men. This is important because male classmates often ass
ume their female counterparts leave the field because they "just aren't good e
nough." Women's low self-estimation contributes to this false impression.

Women are discouraged from an early age
Societal pressure for women to avoid computing begins at an extremely early ag
e. Preschoolers already have conceptions about which jobs are men's jobs, and
which jobs are women's. An excellent review of studies documenting gender role
socialization from an early age can be found in Dr. Ellen Spertus's excellent
"Why are There so Few Female Computer Scientists?" paper: http://www.ai.mit.e
du/people/ellens/Gender/pap/node6.html

Once you realize that men and women are treated differently from, practically,
birth, it becomes hard to claim that any woman hasn't experienced discriminat
ion. Sure, if you're lucky, no one ever explicitly told you that you couldn't
work with computers because you were a girl, but every time you raised your vo
ice, an adult told you to quiet down, while the boy next to you continued to s
hriek. This is a handicap later on in life, when being loud and insistent is t
he only way to get your opinion heard--for example, on the linux-kernel mailin
g list.

The most striking example of a subtle bias against computing for women is that
, in the U.S. at least, the family computer is more likely to be kept in a boy
's room than in a girl's room. Margolis and Fisher give several telling exampl
es of this trend and its effects on pages 22-24 of Unlocking the Clubhouse.

Computing perceived as non-social
Working with computers is perceived to be a solitary occupation involving litt
le or no day-to-day human contact. Since women are socialized to be more frien
dly, helpful, and generally more interested in human interaction than men, com
puting tends to be less attractive to women. I want to stress that computing i
s only perceived to be a non-social activity. While it is possible for a progr
ammer to be relatively successful while being actively anti-social and program
ming does tend to attract people less comfortable with human interaction, comp
uting is as social as you make it. During college, I spent most of my computer
time in a computer lab at the school with several of my best friends. And rec
ently, I changed jobs specifically in order to have more day-to-day contact wi
th other programmers. For me, programming by myself is less fun or creative th
an it is when I have people around to talk to about my program.

Oddly, many occupations which are arguably less social than computing are stil
l very attractive to women. Writing, either fiction or non-fiction, is a good
example of a field that requires many hours of solitary concentration to be su
ccessful. Perhaps the answer to the paradox lies in the perception of individu
al writers as still being interested in social interaction, and just not havin
g much opportunity for it.

Lack of female role models
Women in computing do exist, but most people aren't lucky enough to meet a fem
ale computer scientist. Women are socialized to be modest and avoid self-promo
tion, which makes them even less visible than they might otherwise be. Mothers
and female schoolteachers regularly protest that they don't know anything abo
ut computers. As a result, girls grow up without examples of women who are eit
her competent or confident with computers. I encourage all women in computing
to be as visible as possible--accept all interviews, take credit publicly--eve
n when you don't want to. You may be embarrassed, but by allowing yourself to
be publicized or promoted, you might change a young girl's life.

Games, classes aimed towards men
We all know that most computer games are written by and for men. They feature
non-stop gore and women with unrealistically huge breasts, but hey, if that's
the market, what's the problem?

The best way I know how to illustrate the problem with the computer game indus
try is to tell a story from a Salon.com article (http://archive.salon.com/tech
/feature/2001/05/22/e3_2001/ ) about the 2001 E3 gaming convention:

"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."

This was only one of many similar stories and events at the conference. How ca
n an industry that views company-sponsored gangbangs as somehow appropriate *n
ot* be driving women out of the computing arena in droves?

Advertising, media say computers are for men
The next time you see a computer ad featuring a person, pay attention to that
person's gender. Most likely, the person is a man. Frequently, when I do see w
omen in a computer ad, they're wearing freakish makeup and some form of colorf
ul skintight vinyl, or else they're acting dumb and helpless and waiting for t
he man to show them how to use the computer. Often, they don't appear to actua
lly be using the computer and are just sort of decoratively posed near it. Mov
ies and TV shows are no better. When a woman is depicted as a programmer, ofte
n more screen time is spent admiring her shapely body and kissable lips than d
emonstrating her competence as a programmer. Notable example: Angelina Jolie i
n "Hackers."

Men and women are constantly bombarded with media images which say: "Men use c
omputers, women don't." It's difficult to overcome daily indoctrination of thi
s sort.

Life-work balance more important to women
Being good at computing is considered to be an activity that requires spending
nearly all your waking hours either using a computer or learning about them.
While this is another misperception, women generally are less willing to obses
s on one topic, preferring to lead a more balanced life. Women often believe t
hat if they enter computing, they will inexorably lose that balance, and avoid
the field altogether instead. During college, I was personally very proud of
not spending my leisure time playing computer games because it refuted the pro
grammer stereotype of being at the computer all day, every day.

Reasons women avoid Linux specifically
Linux development is more competitive and fierce than most areas of programmin
g. Often, the only reward (or the major reward) for writing code is status and
the approval of your peers. Far more often, the "reward" is a scathing flame,
or worse yet, no response at all. Since women are socialized to not be compet
itive and avoid conflict, and since they have low self-confidence to begin wit
h, Linux and open source in general are even more difficult than most areas of
computing for women to get and stay involved in.

Do's and don't's of encouraging women in Linux
Encouraging women in Linux involves both learning what to do, and learning wha
t to stop doing. We'll present our ideas in "do" and "don't" pairs, since havi
ng only a list of things to do or a list of things not to do is not as helpful
as having both. Some of these suggestions may seem insultingly obvious to you
personally, but for many other people, they aren't obvious. Each of these sug
gestions is based on multiple real-life encounters with people for whom these
ideas weren't obvious. Try not to dismiss any of the ideas--these are real sug
gestions from real women, the women you presumably want to attract to Linux. A
lso, most of these suggestions are not gender-specific, and will help to attra
ct all types of people to Linux.

Don't tell sexist jokes
Sexist jokes are the number one way to drive women out of any group, and they
are more common than many people realize. I have more than once heard a man sa
y that he doesn't make that kind of joke, and then hours or minutes later, hea
r the same person make a joke about pregnant women or PMS. Sometime he just do
esn't realize that he made a sexist joke, for example, "blonde jokes" are actu
ally "dumb women" jokes. Sometimes he tells me that it's okay to make a sexist
joke if it's true, or it's funny (funny to whom?). What some people fail to r
ealize is that jokes about gender of any sort almost always make fun of women,
and will make most women angry, regardless of the context. It doesn't help to
first make a sexist joke about men and then one about women.

You can argue that women shouldn't be so sensitive (and I will disagree with y
ou) but even then, regardless of should or should not, your comments and jokes
are driving women away. If that's not what you want, then don't make sexist j
okes. If you're not sure if your joke is sexist, find something else to say.


Do protest sexist jokes
The next time you see someone joking about women on your local mailing list or
in person, complain about it. It's difficult to do this without making yourse
lf a target for ridicule, but it's even more difficult for a woman to do the s
ame thing. Women keep silent when we see sexist jokes because if we protest, w
e will immediately be attacked for being over-sensitive, uptight, or a "femina
zi." (Note: NEVER use the term "feminazi." It discredits all feminists, and tr
ivializes the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Consider how ridiculous it sounds
to call people like Rush Limbaugh "male chauvinazis" and you may understand w
hy "feminazi" is so emotionally loaded.)

The best way to fight back against sexist jokes is with humor. If someone repl
ies to a post about the technical achievements of a woman with "Is she single?
" reply with, "Gee, Jeff, no wonder YOU'RE still single." Every time a woman s
ees a sexist joke or comment, she feels angry, left out, and belittled. Every
time a woman sees a man stand up against this behavior, she feels included and
valued.

Don't call people bitches
Using the word "bitch" (and several other words) is derogatory to women, no ma
tter whom the word is referring to. I wouldn't have bothered to include this e
xcept that it's apparently not as obvious as I thought, as I have recently hea
rd Linux developers use "bitch" in a serious manner with apparent nonchalance.


Do show some respect
Talk respectfully about all women, not just the women you're attracted to, as
well as all other kinds of humans of all ages and appearances. If you don't do
this, women will tend to assume that you will treat them as badly as the peop
le you're insulting and avoid you.

Don't take the keyboard away
This is a general problem when teaching anyone something new, but it happens m
ore often to women. Someone asks a question, and instead of telling that perso
n the answer, you take away the keyboard and type in the command yourself. Don
't do this! It makes it much more difficult to learn and it makes the other pe
rson feel stupid and helpless. In general, give people a chance to learn how t
o do things themselves if they're interested in learning. You may think you're
doing a friend a favor by fixing her Apache configuration while she's gone, b
ut if she's trying to learn how to configure Apache, then you're not actually
helping her.

Do give directions and explain them clearly
While it is much harder for you to take the time and patience to explain what
to do and why, and then spell out the command to type, it's worth it in the lo
ng run because the other person is learning and you're less likely to ever hav
e to answer that question again. Specifically, women will feel more confident
in their own abilities if you allow them to type the command themselves.

Don't make sexual advances towards women
Imagine a bar or a pub full of sports fans, fans of a game which you don't kno
w much about or like. Imagine that they're all taller and stronger than you, s
peak in a language you only halfway understand, and belittle anyone who isn't
totally focused on their sport. Now imagine that you walk into this bar, weari
ng a shirt that says, "I AM NOT A FAN OF ANY SPORT." Just imagine it for a min
ute. How would you feel? Nervous? Afraid? Different? Out of place?

You begin to have a teeny-tiny idea of what it's like to be the only woman in
a large group of men.

Keep that feeling of nervousness in mind when you read the rest of this paragr
aph. When you immediately make a sexual advance to a woman at a LUG or online,
you're making her feel like she's not part of the community, like she's under
attack, and like she is risking being ostracized if she turns you down or off
ends you. Remember, this isn't a friendly one-on-one situation where she feels
comfortable turning you down, she's surrounded by the equivalent of the afore
mentioned huge sports fans. She's trying to fit in and be part of the group, a
nd by hitting on her, you're cutting her out of the herd and isolating her fro
m the group. Women grow up with the constant fear and awareness of being attac
ked by men, and as silly as it may seem, it colors all her interactions, no ma
tter how safe or mundane they may seem to men.

Like any other human being, a woman wants to have friends and be appreciated f
or who she is. Every time she gets an email asking her on a date, she is remin
ded that she isn't viewed as part of the group, but instead as different, an o
bject of desire, and is certainly not being judged on her technical merit alon
e.

This may be hard to stomach, but you need to not hit on women who show up for
Linux events, at least not right away. In all likelihood, you are NOT throwing
away your only chance at true love by not coming on to her immediately, but y
ou are throwing away your chance to have a fun new member of the Linux communi
ty. And even if you still think you're missing a chance at true love, keep in
mind that many women brave enough to show up at a LUG or your local mailing li
st will frequently make the first move anyway. By hitting on them at the first
opportunity, you're scaring them away, and you're also scaring away all the o
ther women who might have become interested if the first woman had stayed.

This goes double for women you meet over email or on IRC. You may think that y
our "Are you single?" line is hysterically witty and suave, but she's heard it
a million times. Even if you're joking, even if you already have a girlfriend
or are married--don't do it.

Do act friendly
When women aren't being hit on, we're often being completely ignored, instead.
This isn't any better. Women new to a group often want the same things men wa
nt - we want to feel welcomed, we want to talk about subjects of mutual intere
st, we want to make friends. When a woman says something, listen and respond i
n a friendly manner. Start a conversation and find a topic you're both interes
ted in talking about. Don't assume that because she's a woman, she has stereot
ypically female interests or opinions, instead, keep an open mind and listen f
or clues about what she is interested in. Most likely, she has interests beyon
d hair, makeup, and movie stars if she's involved in Linux.

Several women have complained that all men seem to be able to talk about with
them is why women stay away from computers. While it's an important issue, wom
en would like to talk about something else most of the time, and we would espe
cially not like to be reminded of how "weird" we are when we first join a grou
p. Wait until she's settled in and feels comfortable before bringing up the su
bject if you're curious about it.

Don't complain about the lack of women in computing
It's useful and constructive to talk about the lack of women in computing when
you are approaching it from the viewpoint of the women who are being left out
of an exciting and rewarding field. It's sad and pathetic to talk about the l
ack of women in computing from the viewpoint of a man who blames his lackluste
r love life on the lack of women in computing. The best way to annoy and drive
away women is to talk about the lack of women in computers in this way. Here
are some of the more common reactions of a woman listening to a man whine abou
t the lack of women in his field:

"What am I, invisible? Does he know I'm here?"

"Good to hear that I exist only to serve lonely men."

"athetic. You're so pathetic."

"Then why don't you do something about it instead of complaining?"

"Once again, everyone assumes that only men are listening."

"Maybe I shouldn't be in this field."

"What's wrong with me that I'm here and other women aren't?"

"He's so self-centered."

"No wonder he doesn't have a girlfriend."

"Not only am I in a meat market, I'm the chopped liver."

As you can see, not only does whining about the lack of women make you annoyin
g to women, it also makes the women who are here more likely to leave. In no c
ase does it result in a woman being more likely to date you.

Do encourage women in computing
Instead of complaining about the lack of women, start doing something about it
. Take women's complaints seriously (starting with this HOWTO), read the studi
es on why women avoid computers, math, and science in general, and find ways t
hat you can help encourage women. Be encouraging and supportive when other peo
ple discuss the reasons why women are being driven out of computing. If you ha
ve the opportunity, try to mentor women. Mentoring means guiding, encouraging,
and counseling someone in their education and career. Not everyone is capable
of mentoring, and it's difficult to find compatible mentors and mentees, but
when it does work out, the results can be spectacular. Don't, however, think o
f mentoring as a way to find a girlfriend - all a mentor gets out of the relat
ionship is reflected glory from your student and the joy of watching another p
erson grow.

Don't stare and point when women arrive
Nobody likes being stared or pointed at. Why would a woman like it either? Man
y women complain that when they walk into a room of Linux enthusiasts, suddenl
y, the conversation stops, everyone turns around and looks, and few people eve
n point to make sure their buddies can see what everyone is staring at. This i
s intimidating and unpleasant, and more than enough to make a woman swear neve
r to return.

A good quote from Mia, a women in Linux:

"I've never bothered going to a LUG but I've been to other geek events where e
veryone has turned around and stared when I walked in... it felt more like the
'stranger walks into a bar scene' in a western than anything else."


Do treat new arrivals politely
When a woman walks into a LUG meeting or posts on a mailing list, act nonchala
nt. Try as much as possible to treat her like any other person you would like
to have as part of your group. Remember, it's not flattering to remind her tha
t she's one of a kind, special, rare, or weird. Start pretending that women ar
e a normal part of the Linux community and you'll go a long way towards making
that a reality.

Don't treat women stereotypically
Don't assume that all women like cooking, sewing, and babies, and are at the L
UG or on the mailing list only because their boyfriend, son, or husband are in
terested in Linux. One woman says that every time someone in her LUG explained
something to her, they would use an analogy to cooking or babies, assuming th
at those were the subjects she was most familiar with. Don't assume we aren't
interested in cars, math, fighter jets, or robotics. Don't assume that we don'
t know how to compile a kernel--I personally know at least fifteen women who c
an compile their own kernels and several of those also write kernel code. If y
ou're lucky, one of them will show up to your LUG or mailing list, and you wou
ldn't want to insult her by assuming she couldn't even install her own machine
. Don't assume that she got interested in computers because she liked to chat
or send instant messages. Women are about as likely to cuss as men--don't do a
double-take if you cuss in front of a woman. If she's read any of the kernel code (notably arch/sparc/), she's heard of the word "fuck" befo
re.

Do treat women as normal people
As much as you can, act like the women in your group are just normal people, b
ecause we are just normal people. Some people complain, "Women want to be trea
ted just like normal people, but then they tell me not to make sexist jokes ar
ound them! That's a paradox!" Well, if you define "normal people" as "the men
I usually hang out with," then it is a paradox. If you include women in your d
efinition of "normal people," and then treat normal people in a fair and respe
ctful way, then women don't require any special treatment.

If you're still unsure of how to treat women, try the following: Be friendly b
ut not overbearing, be casual, start conversations the way you normally do, mo
ve on when the conversation is over. If you spend most of your time around a v
ery specific subset of the male population, you will have to change your behav
ior to some degree, but this is just as true as if you were talking to a man f
rom a totally different background. If you find that you have to heavily modif
y your behavior in order to not offend women, you should consider changing you
r behavior in all circumstances. No one is fooled if you simply stop making se
xist jokes when women are around but continue to make them when (you think) wo
men aren't around.

Don't criticize too much
Women are socialized to be far more sensitive to criticism than men, as well a
s more critical of themselves. As a result, women are far more likely to be dr
iven off by heavy or unfair criticism than men. When you're tempted to critici
ze, try to remember that absolutely no one was born knowing how to compile a k
ernel and that at one point, you didn't know anything about Linux, either. Peo
ple will lose interest in something if they perceive themselves as being bad a
t it, so if you want someone to continue being interested in Linux, don't crit
icize her so much that she believes she isn't any good at it.

Do compliment
Women have much lower self-confidence than men on average, and will generally
judge themselves far more harshly than any outsider. Compliments help improve
her self-confidence, which in turn keeps her interested in the subject. If she
believes that she's not good at Linux, she'll probably stop working on Linux.


The following are some guidelines for complimenting anyone:

Be sincere and truthful. If you really think her program is an ugly piece of g
arbage, don't tell her that you admire its syntactic beauty. Find something yo
u can honestly admire and compliment that.

Be specific. "You're good at Linux," is meaningless, "You always know which di
stribution to recommend," is specific and therefore meaningful.

Be appropriate. Don't compliment a kernel developer on installing Linux. Don't
compliment a gimp developer on her use of layers. Be sure that your complimen
t actually reflects a significant accomplishment rather than demonstrating you
r ignorance of her level of expertise.

Compare to yourself. If she learned bash scripting more quickly than you did,
tell her so. Say, "Wow, you learned bash scripting after X months. It took me
2*X months to learn that." Or if she made a silly compilation mistake, tell he
r about your worst compilation mistake. When she learns that her mistakes are
not unusual, she'll feel better.

Compliment before you criticize. If you do have a constructive piece of critic
ism, it's a good idea to start out by telling her what she did right.

Compliment and don't criticize. Don't always follow a compliment with a critic
ism. More often, compliment her and be done with it.

Don't brag. Saying, out of the blue, "She can compile her own kernel!" and bea
ming fondly upon her is not complimentary, it's bragging about her abilities a
s if you are responsible in some way for her success. Parents are especially p
rone to bragging. Pointing out her expertise in an unobtrusive and subtle mann
er is much better - "Oh, well, if you have a question about kernel compilation
, she might be able to help you better than I can." When someone points out my
capabilities in this manner, it's indescribably wonderful.


You almost certainly shouldn't compliment her on her hair, her face, her body,
or her sweet temperament. If she's interested in Linux, she is, by definition
, a geek, and probably wants to be complimented on her intelligence, abilities
, and hard work. Compliment her on installing Linux for the first time, on her
customized desktop, on her intelligent and interesting questions during the l
ast meeting. A compliment on anything else is inappropriate and will be seen a
s a sexual advance (because it almost always is), and will make her feel more
uncomfortable and less confident.

Don't invite only male speakers
If all your speakers are always men, women will notice and not feel welcome. R
ole models people can identify with are important to staying interested in a f
ield.

Do ask women to speak
It's surprisingly easy to find technically brilliant female computer scientist
s willing to come speak to your group. If you explain that you are trying to e
ncourage women in computers, many women will be even more likely to speak at y
our event. Women speakers are probably the number one way to get women to come
to your event. They will be able to see a role model, ask her questions about
her experiences, and for a few hours at least, not feel like the only woman w
ho's interested in computers. Be sure that when you do invite a woman speaker
that you advertise the event well, especially to women.

One woman says that she noticed her LUG paid less attention to and was ruder t
o women speakers. She thought it might be because the members dismissed the po
ssibility of her knowing anything they didn't already know. Be sure not to let
this happen to your women speakers.

Don't micro-specialize
Maybe you and your friends are perfectly happy to show up to your local LUG an
d talk about the same topics (the latest video card, first-person shooters, ro
bots) every week, but for whatever reason, few women have the endless interest
in minutiae that men often display. Try not to have all your speakers talk ab
out micro-specialties, or always discuss the same areas of robotics.

Do discuss broader topics
Arrange for speakers on a wider range of issues than just technical specialtie
s. Women tend to be more interested in political and social issues surrounding
computing, and women also tend to have a broader range of technical interests
within computer science. Try scheduling a discussion on compilers if you alwa
ys end up talking about USB, or a review of the open source licenses instead o
f endlessly rehashing the discussion about binary-only Nvidia modules.

Don't make your meetings hard to attend
About the worst LUG meeting possible: 10pm on Monday night, in a warehouse in
downtown, the unmarked entrance is in a deserted and poorly lit alleyway, and
no public transport is nearby. Oh, and we're serving pizza (choices: meat, dou
ble meat, and extra spicy meat) and cheap beer. Did I mention we're going out
to a sports bar afterward?

Do make meetings easy to attend
As usual, following these suggestions will make your meetings more attractive
to everyone. Try to schedule your meetings at family and school friendly times
- not too late in the evening. Make sure your meeting is in a safe, well lit
place with easy access to public transportation, if your city has any. If you
want new people to attend, the meeting place should be clearly marked and easy
to find. If you serve food or drink, try to vary the menu a bit. After an inf
ormal survey, we discovered that women tend to prefer sandwiches, fruit, and v
egetables instead of pizza. Chinese takeout is one way to easily provide a var
iety of different food. Consider having a vegetarian menu option. If members o
f the LUG socialize outside meetings, try to do things which are welcoming to
people of different backgrounds.

Don't make new people feel unwelcome
If a new person shows up and all the established people refuse to talk to or a
cknowledge the new person, the new person is unlikely to come back. Most likel
y, everyone is just too shy to say hello, but that doesn't make any difference
. Additionally, if other members immediately attack or challenge or just ignor
e everything the newcomer has to say, she won't be interested in returning.

Do help new people get involved
Ask new people to introduce themselves and talk about their own projects and i
nterests for a bit. Try more informal meeting styles - instead of a speaker an
d a silent audience, have a panel question and answer session or a round table
discussion. Let members speak for a few minutes on their own projects, so new
people who share their interests know who to talk to. If you have someone who
doesn't mind speaking to strange people, ask them to serve as host and welcom
e new people to the group or mailing list.

Don't underestimate girlfriends or wives
Many women involved in Linux or computing are also dating or married to men wi
th similar interests. Many people then assume that the woman is only intereste
d in Linux because her boyfriend or husband is. Women are sometimes introduced
to Linux through a boyfriend (which shouldn't make their interest less valid
or less important). More often, women become interested in Linux or computing,
start making friends and meeting people in the field, and because there are s
o few women in the field, we unsurprisingly often have little difficulty findi
ng a person to date in the same field. Don't conclude that because most women
in Linux are dating or married to someone also involved in Linux, that women a
re only interested in Linux because of that relationship. For many women, inte
rest in Linux predates her current relationship. I personally became intereste
d in Linux while I was dating an English major who wouldn't know an operating
system if it walked up and bit him.

One of the LinuxChix reports that her first invitation to speak at a conferenc
e was as a member of a panel entitled "Wives of Hackers." The prominent open s
ource celebrity who suggested the panel didn't understand why she was insulted
. After all, her own work in open source was apparently insignificant compared
to being the wife of a famous kernel hacker.

Do treat girlfriends and wives as independent people
Girlfriends or wives of people interested in Linux also have their own lives a
nd accomplishments, and frequently those are also in the area of Linux or open
source or computing. Instead of treating her as an adjunct to her boyfriend o
r husband, recognize that she has her own interests and areas of expertise, an
d talk to her about them.

But I don't do that!
This is perhaps a good time for some introspection. At the LinuxChix BOF at Ot
tawa Linux Symposium, we finished listing all the reasons why women stayed awa
y from LUGs. A man from the local LUG raised his hand and said that no one at
his LUG did any of the things we complained about, but they were still having
difficulty attracting women. A woman from the same LUG raised her hand and sai
d, "Yes, they do." She went on to say that only a few "bad apples" were doing
these things, but those few were enough to drive off most women. This is a ver
y important point: if your group has nine helpful and polite members, and one
rude, sexist, loud member, most women are going to continue to stay away becau
se of that one member. I realize that this isn't fair to the other people in t
he group, but that's reality. If your group is stuck with one bad apple, try a
little peer pressure the next time he does something that will drive off wome
n. Reply to his email, disagree with what he says--establish that you don't share his opinions. Just knowing that there is one other person i
n the group who is willing to publicly disagree with the "bad apple" will help
immensely, and will make women more willing to stay.

In my own experience, I have over and over again heard a man say that he doesn
't do any of these things, and then observed him hours or minutes later doing
exactly what he claimed he doesn't do. I don't think any of those men were lyi
ng, just completely unaware. Making sexist jokes or comments seems to be the m
ost unconscious behavior - many men just don't realize that what they're sayin
g is offensive to women.

Also, it's definitely possible to have good intentions and still drive away wo
men. You may think you're encouraging a woman by congratulating her on being b
rave enough to show up to an event, but you're actually pointing out to her th
at she's weird and unusual, rather than making her feel like part of the commu
nity. As one woman put it, "I know I'm an alien. You don't need to emphasize i
t." We're hoping that this HOWTO will help you realize when you are unintentio
nally driving away women.

If you're curious about how your behavior appears to women, my best suggestion
is to find a woman you know who tends to be blunt and outspoken, and ask her
if she remembers you saying or doing something offensive to women. You might b
e surprised at her response. Remember, most women would rather chew off a leg
than be rude to a man to his face, so it may be difficult to get an honest ans
wer.

A. LinuxChix
LinuxChix is an active and growing organization run by and for women who are i
nterested in Linux. Founded by Deb Richardson and currently run by Jenn Vesper
man, LinuxChix specializes in providing a supportive and friendly environment
for all Linux users and developers, but especially for women. LinuxChix is run
by an international group of volunteers who believe in the importance of incl
uding women in the Linux community. Men may join LinuxChix, but the focus is o
n women and we attempt to maintain a female-dominated environment. The women i
nvolved in LinuxChix include several Linux kernel developers, a Mozilla develo
per, a member of the GNOME foundation, an O'Reilly author, system administrato
rs, computer consultants, security experts, students from high school to Ph.D.
level in many fields, literally hundreds of programmers of various sorts, and
many computer hobbyists. If you are a woman interested in Linux, or you know
a woman who is, LinuxChix is an excellent place to find a peer group.

LinuxChix has recently added a number of features, web resources, and mailing
lists. If you visited it more than a few months ago, you may want to take a se
cond look. New features include Linux kernel hacking lessons, several new mail
ing lists, online programming courses, book and software reviews, and much muc
h more. Many LinuxChix chapters have started or restarted recently (chapters e
xist to bring LinuxChix together for face-to-face meetings). The LinuxChix "de
velopment process" is open and friendly. We welcome new volunteers and ideas,
just subscribe to the mailing lists and offer to help.

You can find out more about LinuxChix at our website:

http://www.linuxchix.org

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