discuss: Review needed of 'Encourage Women in Linux' HOWTO
Subject:
Re: Review needed of 'Encourage Women in Linux' HOWTO
From:
Val Henson ####@####.####
Date:
7 Dec 2003 02:29:43 -0000
Message-Id: <20031207022941.GA3370@speare5-1-14>
First, thank you for your kind words. When I wrote this, I expected
criticism, but I did not expect quite so many compliments.
On Sat, Dec 06, 2003 at 12:04:52PM -0600, Rob McGee wrote:
>
> I will say that I don't entirely like the content: there has been far
> too much emphasis on preventing hurt feelings and not offending anyone,
> for my tastes. Respect for others begins with self-respect, and those
> with strong self-respect can control their own feelings.
You might be surprised to hear that I feel the same way - this HOWTO
has too much emphasis on preventing hurt feelings and not offending
anyone for _my_ tastes, too. (But then, not many men would be willing
to write this particular document, so I'm thick-skinned relative to
any group.) I would like to point out that self-respect, along with
self-esteem and confidence, is one of the things that women tend to
have less of than men. If a high level of self-respect is required to
get started in Linux, fewer women will get involved.
Writing this HOWTO was an interesting exercise in partitioning my
brain. I had to do two somewhat difficult things:
1. Listen to other women talk about what they found encouraging and
discouraging and, without judging them for how they responded,
document that behavior.
2. Refrain from giving advice to women on how to change themselves to
do better - because this is HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux, not
HOWTO Be a Woman in Linux.
I chose to write HOWTO Encourage rather than HOWTO Be for several
reasons. First, a HOWTO aimed only at women can only change the
behavior of 10% or fewer of the Linux community - the women. One
aimed at both could reach 100%. Second, I find the attitude of "It's
women's responsibility to change themselves to fit into existing male
society," to be, at base, more than a little misogynist. We all need
to change, but I would like to see the majority of the onus for
working for change placed on men. And finally, men were clamoring for
this HOWTO, while the women I knew generally felt like they had their
own behavior under control.
Personally, I have strong opinions on how women should behave and what
traits we should value more than we do currently (among them
aggressiveness, assertiveness, confidence, and self-promotion). I
suspect this makes me one of the worst people to write HOWTO Be a
Woman in Linux.
-VAL
