[Linux-aus] How can we address gender imbalance in LA/AU-FLOSS? (Was: An Open Letter to the Open Source Community)

[Nathan Bailey]

On 23/05/2007, at 1:27 PM, Bret Busby wrote:
> In the proposed restructuring of Linux Australia, does this mean  
> that it will have a "womens interest group" (but not a "men's  
> interest group"), and a "womens representative", "but not a "men's  
> representative", on the "governing council", ... (snip)

An interesting idea. Perhaps we should.

Until at least 30-40% of the FLOSS community are women, we, as one of  
the leading FLOSS groups in Australia, should be leading the effort  
into investigating and resolving the imbalance. Perhaps we should  
fund Catherine Lang to help us. Catherine is the ACM-W Australian  
Ambassador, helps to lead http://www.austwic.org/ and researches in  
this area. It would be interesting to see what she could do to help  
us understand the local problems and give us some strategies to  
implement that are well-informed from international research/experience.

pp7-8 of the PDF Melissa quoted (http://www.flosspols.org/ 
deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf)  
provides some recommendations. Why don't brainstorm what we can do to  
be more inclusive, to apply these recommendations in our community/ 
country. We could even fund a grant for Catherine (or others) to  
further investigate the issues, providing a local perspective and  
more specific recommendations. I wouldn't be surprised if we could  
get some matching funds from the government.

Who would like to be involved in such a project/initiative?

re,
N
PS: James and Andrew, I preferred your argument to the previous major  
one on the list, which was similar, but less amusing :-)