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November 23, 2005
women in free software
Over at GrandTextAuto Nick's posted an interesting write-up of Hanna Wallach's recent talk on women in the open software movement. Did you know that while 28% of proprietary software developers are female, only about 1.5% of free software developers are? Or that while young men get their first computer at 15, on average, women, on average, have to wait until they're over 20?
Buy your daughters computers!
Posted by Jill Walker at 03:24 PM in Software | Permalink
Comments
I got my first with 11 and bought my first own when I was 17. :))
Posted by: Nicole Simon at Nov 23, 2005 9:14:48 PM
I got my first computer for college graduation, after minoring in IS (major in English.)
I managed the computer lab at school and shared an office with the rest of the student staff with an old computer I used to do my undergrad work... looking back it's crazy I didn't have my own for so long, when I was compiling C programs up in that office!
Posted by: Gina at Nov 24, 2005 6:51:06 PM
I think there are fewer women in "free software" because women are more practical. They want be paid for their work. Also I suspect that many men feel that is easier to discount women who are willing to work for free. The men in free software are more clannish and chauvinistic (my observation) than men in paid software. They like being in a tight little boys club. So while I think we need a lot more woman in software and agree that getting girls computers is a good idea I think they have a better future in paid software than free software.
Posted by: Alfred Thompson at Nov 30, 2005 4:41:53 PM
