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Warning: Feminist rant aheadI was wading through kernel code the other day when I found this comment in idr.c: You can pass this id to a user for him to pass back at a later time. My feminist side was a little irked by the use of "him". It implies that the only user of this function must be men. English speakers tend to use the word "he" or "him" when the gender is ambiguous. It's common because in the past only men were educated and our language is slow to change. I started wondering, how would the Linux community react to someone submitting patches to gender neutralize code? It's not a big deal, on the surface. It's akin to removing extra whitespace or cleaning up spelling, which some kernel janitors do. Like those tasks, it's a lot of thankless work. So why would it be worth it? Our preconceptions of what we can and cannot do start with language. When someone is told, over and over again, that they cannot be an engineer or a ballerina, they may start to be believe it. People also get discouraged when all the literature surrounding the field implicitly assumes they are of the opposite gender. We'd look twice at a statistics book that talks about the chances of getting an ineffective pill in a batch of birth control pills. However, most people wouldn't even pause when reading the source code above because we think that men are more likely to be programmers. A while ago, I was talking with a Boeing engineering at OSCON about the lack of t-shirts for women at the conference booths. He said something along the lines of, "There's just not that many of you around." My response to that is if the community doesn't make room for women, they will continue to be the exception. Of course, some people might argue that by the time a woman reads kernel code or participates in an open source convention, it's likely that she's already decided to be a programmer despite societal expectations. However, as someone who is just getting involved in kernel hacking, it's still a little intimidating that there is an implicit gender bias. Heck, it was even intimidating to go to my first "Kernel beering" because society implies beer is not a girl's drink. There are many subtle ways that the engineering community in general, and the open source community specifically, can make women feel welcome. It starts with language. If we can't explicitly tell women that the open source community is not a boy's club, at the very least, we shouldn't implicitly exclude them from the community with the use of gendered terms.
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Imprecision is Bad
for kernel-hacking and for feminist rants. In both cases, you need a tight, solid plan of attack to accomplish your objectives.
The sentence you quote is referring to a user, not a kernel hacker. Are you arguing that women are being excluded from using computers? That's statistically, empirically false. Even the most feminist view of history will show a vast majority of typists have been females. Computers have continued this tradition.
So, despite the misplaced pronoun in this coding comment, women have clearly overcome men as professional computer users. That's strong, factual evidence against your claim of exclusion.
A T-shirt is a unisex garment in 2006. I realize that there are special cuts like "baby doll" and "cropped", but don't those sexualize women's bodies? Wouldn't that be a step in the wrong direction? Otherwise, pick a T-shirt which is comfortable and I promise that no one will ever consider that you're wearing "men's clothing".
Drinking beer as a professional activity - well, that's an odd custom, isn't it? I feel the same barrier toward quilting, baby showers, and Tupperware parties. I have no doubt I would be welcomed into any of those activities if I wanted to participate. Just as you were welcomed at the "beering". There is no real barrier to my participation, or yours, other than our own, self-imposed limitations.
It's no good to rant about my self-imposed limitations to the world. I can discard them if it pleases me, or conform to them if it pleases me. That's no one else's decision and no one else's fault.
Are you arguing that women
Are you arguing that women are being excluded from using computers?
I'm not arguing that women are being excluded from using computers. I'm arguing that a women programmer who read that line might feel that the person who wrote it assumed his fellow programmers were male. It just irks me for females to be thought of as the exception in engineering, even if it's unintentionally.
A T-shirt is a unisex garment in 2006.
A t-shirt is not a unisex garment; it is designed with the male torso in mind. A basic Hanes t-shirt that fits my chest size ends up going half-way to my knees and looking like a dress. You can buy fitted t-shirts that are a better compomise, and the OSCAMP t-shirt I got is one such type. Cut aside, I had problems finding the right size at OSCON. Only a few booths had a medium, and only two had a small. They had plenty of XXL.
Drinking beer as a professional activity - well, that's an odd custom, isn't it? I feel the same barrier toward quilting, baby showers, and Tupperware parties. I have no doubt I would be welcomed into any of those activities if I wanted to participate. Just as you were welcomed at the "beering". There is no real barrier to my participation, or yours, other than our own, self-imposed limitations.
You are right that some of my hesitation to participate in the kernel beerings were due to self-imposed limitations. I'm just sad that there isn't a balance in kernel development. I guess the real reason I overreacted to the comment was that I've been wanting some female hacker role models and haven't had time to seek them out. The Society of Women Engineers at PSU is not active, as far as I can tell. I should probably talk to Val or Kristin or Karen about starting up a Linux Chix at PSU. Of course, I don't want to get dragged into running the group, I'd just like to participate.