Posted on Wednesday 23 November 2005 - Popularity: unranked
Last week NerdTV for the first time interviewed a “Geek Chick”. I actually know her personally, definitely a big fortunate coincidence if you have an idea how small the percentage of females in technical fields, especially among communities of geeks and hackers, is.
This article explores some of the issues relating to females in technical fields, particularly in the Open Source/Free Software movement and among communities of geeks and hackers: Why are there so few of them? Why are there even less who achieve excellence and recognition in their field? What causes and correlations can we find that might tell us more about this? And does it matter anyway? The desirability of having female hackers is also explored, and a possible alternative role for women in the field is suggested.
I would definitely love to see more female geeks around us and I think it will actually happen now as the internet plays a central role in the social life of more and more people.
