LinuxChix numbers...

[Frederick Noronha]

Just a query from my end...

I guess we are all concerned about the low numbers of women in the
world of GNU/Linux, and largely accept that this is a problem area.

If this is so, then do we have any plans to increase their numbers in
the world of FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software).

When it comes to guys (I know hardly any young women who want to get
into geekdom, except my daughter, who is seven years old and I'm
trying to get her hooked onto kturtle... but don't know programming
myself!) one thing that really works is mentoring.

Just down the road, in my village, I have superb GNU/Linux skills,
coming from a 20-year-old, who was introduced to GNU/Linux simply by a
word of encouragement from a common friend. Subsequently, I made it a
point to hand over a number of mags, books, and software CDs, just for
my young friend to play around with. He has shaped up well, and is
among those who has tried out the most number of distros, can answer
tech queries, and is overall confident.

I was wondering if the same approach would work with mentoring women,
and wether this group feels it's worth to try building skills among
women. While we need the numbers, we also need to start somewhere, and
every single individual who has these skills does count.

What do the others see as a good way of building skills among women?
More women role models would surely help. But then, we could also
focus our campaigns on women's colleges, which are otherwise neglected
in our campaigns.

Your suggestions please... Let's focus some of our attention on this
issue, if the others agree. FN