Estrogen for Geeks
2006.03.08
If we had more women in these dorky mailing lists, flamewars would be far fewer, discussions would be more intelligent, and people would be respectful toward each other. But as the average geek mailing list has zero active female participation, any lengthy thread where even a minor dispute arises ultimately ends up being a fist fight. What we really need is a good dose of estrogen in all technical discussions. Compare the dignified silence (and of course, smart mediation) of female standardistas as opposed to us monkeys pooping web standards all over the place.
Perhaps it’s a biological thing that we don’t get the females of the species turned on by the tools males are so much attached to. Most hackers are more devoted to their preferred operating system, text editor and pet technologies than to actual people in the community, and are absurdly territorial and protective about their “toys”. On the other hand, women often value the human element of a relationship above the difference in opinion. No wonder they make excellent managers. Those who think I’m stereotyping should read The First Sex.
We’re lucky to have people like Holly Bergevin (on CSS-D) and Lea De Groot (on WSG) on web standards mailing lists. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the more “technical” places, like Linux User Groups. You can never really eliminate the competition for alpha-malehood, but without female participation things can get out of hand in any community. So girls, do your part and raise your voices.
March 8 is the International Women’s Day.
5 Comments
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Kate
March 8th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
If we had more women in these dorky mailing lists, flamewars would be far fewer, discussions would be more intelligent, and people would be respectful toward each other.
I’m going to have to disagree there… I’ve seen some amazing flamewar action from women. Screaming, hysterical, backstabbing, violent flamewars, far worse than any I’ve seen on male-predominant online groups.
If it does seem that mailing lists are a lot more mellow when a few women are on there, it’s probably less the actual presence of women and more the male residents’ reactions to the presence of women. (”Cleaning up for the ladies”…)
Perhaps it’s a biological thing that we don’t get the females of the species turned on by the tools males are so much attached to.
It’s really more of a society thing — I was repeatedly told that “girls can’t like computers”. It didn’t work on me (obviously), but it does work on a huge amount of women. Dale Spender’s Nattering On The Net is a great read on what happens with women and technology (it’s a bit outdated, ’cause it was published in 1995), but it does have a fantastic section outlining the slow shift of the personal computers from women to men.
Mahangu
March 8th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
I totally agree. The alpha male concept comes across in forums and lists everywhere. If you look at trolls, I’m pretty sure most of them are men too.
+1 to techie women, they keep the peace where they can.
Happy Women’s Day everyone!
chamira
March 8th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Mahangu,
Yes, and usually men without any women in their unbearably stereotyped lives.
aska
March 9th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Hopefully some women read this…. ;-D
Brock
March 9th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Mm, I’m one day late