TEN EASY WAYS ATTRACT WOMEN YOUR FREE SOFTWARE PROJECT
The gender inequality among developers and supporters of free software is stunning. Less than 2% of us are women, according to studies conducted for the European Commission. Why? The evidence says we’re driving them away. There are even some pretty good published guidelines on how not to drive them away. What’s missing is a practical implementation strategy: here I present ten relatively simple changes in how you run your project, to make it more attractive to would-be contributors—especially women.
Yes, there is a problem. Data from [1]
There’s a lot of research on this subject, and if you are interested in a deeper understanding of the problem, then you’ll want to go and read some of the notes. The FLOSSPOLS[1] study is particularly informative, and although long, it is well structured, and has good summaries. Val Henson wrote an excellent HOWTO[2] on the behavioral issues, which I highly recommend you read. A lot has been written about how big the problem is, the factors that are probably contributing to the problem, and even some broad social and political ideas about solutions.
To put it very briefly, the studies conclude that there is no dearth of women interested in computer science, nor women capable of doing it well, and there are excellent reasons why women should be involved for their own benefit and for the benefit of the community[1]. But the community’s process is exceedingly male-centric and hostile to anyone who doesn’t fit that mold—a problem confirmed by the few pioneering women who do participate[2-9]. The recommended solutions primarily involve intentional cultural changes that need to happen to avoid the hostility and make the field more accessible.[1,2]
I’m going to assume that you’re already sold on the value of inviting more women into our community, or at least committed to stopping the things that drive them away. But what are you going to do about it? As a free software project leader or founder, you make a lot of fundamental design decisions about how you’re going to run your project. And that’s where I think that change needs to start: make one project friendlier. Then another, and so on.
In my opinion, the key is the technology problem. Online society is a product of its participants, but also of the landscape artificially created by the software that we use in our production process. That toolchain has been crafted almost entirely by men, and unconsciously, for men and their social needs. Women’s needs have been ignored, if not actively derided. And surprise, surprise… they don’t show.
It’s time to fix that. Here’s a list of ten not-so-difficult process decisions to make in laying out a new project, or to adopt in an existing one. Nine of these ten suggestions do not involve any special treatment for women (the tenth does, but only in a trivial way). Making your project friendlier and more open to new contributors will attract some men as well as women. But it is women who will benefit the most from these changes[10].
1 Use forums instead of mailing lists
“When asked about the large gender imbalance in FLOSS [free software] development, many women relate stories about harassment or other inappropriate treatment at a FLOSS meeting or in a FLOSS newsgroup. Since most FLOSS projects aren’t affiliated with a company, university or other accountable body, civilized behavior isn’t enforced.” —— Michelle Levesque/Greg Wilson[5]
“Just knowing that there is one other person in the group who is willing to publicly disagree with the ‘bad apple’ will help immensely, and will make women more willing to stay.” —— Val Henson[2]
The gender inequality among developers and supporters of free software is stunning. Less than 2% of us are women, according to studies conducted for the European Commission. Why? The evidence says we’re driving them away. There are even some pretty good published guidelines on how not to drive them away. What’s missing is a practical implementation strategy: here I present ten relatively simple changes in how you run your project, to make it more attractive to would-be contributors—especially women.
Yes, there is a problem. Data from [1]
There’s a lot of research on this subject, and if you are interested in a deeper understanding of the problem, then you’ll want to go and read some of the notes. The FLOSSPOLS[1] study is particularly informative, and although long, it is well structured, and has good summaries. Val Henson wrote an excellent HOWTO[2] on the behavioral issues, which I highly recommend you read. A lot has been written about how big the problem is, the factors that are probably contributing to the problem, and even some broad social and political ideas about solutions.
To put it very briefly, the studies conclude that there is no dearth of women interested in computer science, nor women capable of doing it well, and there are excellent reasons why women should be involved for their own benefit and for the benefit of the community[1]. But the community’s process is exceedingly male-centric and hostile to anyone who doesn’t fit that mold—a problem confirmed by the few pioneering women who do participate[2-9]. The recommended solutions primarily involve intentional cultural changes that need to happen to avoid the hostility and make the field more accessible.[1,2]
I’m going to assume that you’re already sold on the value of inviting more women into our community, or at least committed to stopping the things that drive them away. But what are you going to do about it? As a free software project leader or founder, you make a lot of fundamental design decisions about how you’re going to run your project. And that’s where I think that change needs to start: make one project friendlier. Then another, and so on.
In my opinion, the key is the technology problem. Online society is a product of its participants, but also of the landscape artificially created by the software that we use in our production process. That toolchain has been crafted almost entirely by men, and unconsciously, for men and their social needs. Women’s needs have been ignored, if not actively derided. And surprise, surprise… they don’t show.
It’s time to fix that. Here’s a list of ten not-so-difficult process decisions to make in laying out a new project, or to adopt in an existing one. Nine of these ten suggestions do not involve any special treatment for women (the tenth does, but only in a trivial way). Making your project friendlier and more open to new contributors will attract some men as well as women. But it is women who will benefit the most from these changes[10].
1 Use forums instead of mailing lists
“When asked about the large gender imbalance in FLOSS [free software] development, many women relate stories about harassment or other inappropriate treatment at a FLOSS meeting or in a FLOSS newsgroup. Since most FLOSS projects aren’t affiliated with a company, university or other accountable body, civilized behavior isn’t enforced.” —— Michelle Levesque/Greg Wilson[5]
“Just knowing that there is one other person in the group who is willing to publicly disagree with the ‘bad apple’ will help immensely, and will make women more willing to stay.” —— Val Henson[2]
A web-based forum typically provides much better ability to moderate and maintain community behavioral standards. Like a campus security phone, the mere existence of a
A web-based forum typically provides much better ability to moderate and maintain community behavioral standards. Like a campus security phone, the mere existence of a “Report to moderator” link deters most serious abuses, and other features create a friendly and inviting atmosphere which encourages good behavior (Credits: Brian Schulman/CC-By-SA 2.0, Terry Hancock/CC-By-SA 3.0)
Reasons
* Community standards are easier to maintain
* Avatars create a face-to-face-like feeling that encourages “more human” behavior
* Badges and ranks afford a better understanding of how representative any poster is
* Signatures and avatars provide a form of graphical self-expression more comfortable for women than the sorts of posturing and crowing behaviors that fill this role for men
* Out of channel communications allow “meta” conversations to happen without disrupting the forum: you don’t have to post to counter a flame, you just vote it down or report it to a moderator
* Things like gender status and dating information can be communicated in profiles, by those who want them, and ignored by those who don’t, eliminating the motivation for talking about it in a thread
The absolute number one problem with women joining free software projects is that, from square one, they have to put up with jerks. If you’re on the job, you put up with jerks, because you have to. But would you do that to yourself, just for fun? No. And most potential contributors—especially the new ones and the ones you most want—are here for the fun.
Val Henson’s “HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux”[2] pretty much covers the behavioral issues and what needs to change, but it says little about how to make these changes happen. As a leader, you need a way to set community standards and enforce them. Despite a certain “Wild West” charm some of us feel about the libertarian environment of internet text forums, no one seriously needs to tolerate flame wars. They are not constructive, and you can always argue the same points in a civilized tone.
So ban the jerks and put the fun back in for everyone. Mailing list software is lousy at moderation options, so don’t use it! Set up a web forum in your CMS, on your server, or use a paid or free forum hosting service. Have the conversations there: for users and developers.
Forums are a lot of fun once you get used to them, and women like them for other reasons besides the feeling of a “safe haven”. They also promote more camaraderie and social behavior than do mailing lists, contributing to a greater feeling of “constructive leisure”. Women often collaborate on projects in order to socialize, so this is a good way to encourage more serious contributions.
It goes without saying, of course, that you need to have forum behavior guidelines and you need to enforce them. Empower moderators to take on that job (and women often will volunteer for this kind of job if you ask them nicely).
2 Use flat conversation rather than deep-threads: “who” not just “what”
“While it is possible for a programmer to be relatively successful while being actively anti-social and programming does tend to attract people less comfortable with human interaction, computing is as social as you make it. […] For me, programming by myself is less fun or creative than it is when I have people around to talk to about my program.” —— Val Henson[2]
