Drupalchix; We're Now 10%!
7% no more, we've gone up to 10%!
At least at Drupalcon Szeged. I wonder what the numbers are now overall.
Drupal has been notably very gender friendly for a while and has many incredibly inspiring, amazing women that are a part of making it both a great CMS and a great community to be a part of. Drupal has always had a larger number of female contributors than most open source projects, the percentage just a piddly 2% in open source in general. We've been at 7% for a while now and it's so great to see those numbers increasing.
It's groups like this, people that've been named so many times before you know who I'm talking about, and just the general welcoming attitudes and Drupal passion within the community that makes this possible.
Anyway, I didn't see this announced anywhere, but I think it's worthy of announcement outside of the Drupalcon State of Drupal session I unfortunately didn't get to witness first hand. You can see it here, http://www.archive.org/details/state_of_drupal
10%!
When I heard that at the conference, I wasn't sure if that was 10% of all Drupal users, or the 10% at the conference. With that said, I don't know if I saw 50 women at the conference- I don't know exact numbers at the Drupalchix BOF either (birds of a feather session- for those who never went to a drualcon before) - maybe 25?
Actually, when the Drupalchix session started, I remembered having seen or spoke with women who weren't there. I went on a search, but stopped short of shouting an announcement. I think still there was some communication trouble about the existence of the BOFs, their location and the nature of the BOFs. At the next con we will need to be more proactive about getting the word out about the existence of the Drupalchix BOF. I'm suggesting a little handout, card, moo card? sticker? any ideas?
One interesting thing came up with non-native English speakers during the meeting was the use of the word "girls" to refer to others in the group. As opposed to being a friendly/sisterly term, it came off as possibly demeaning. I'm exaggerating here- but in other cultures you gain the right to be called a woman as you mature, and being called a 'girl' would not be cute or fun.
I really enjoyed Drupalcon- but the sit-down with the Drupalchix sparked a week long conversation about my work situation wherein I have applied for a new job, and I'm 'starting to stop' saying things like "Oh well, I'm just a this, and just a that"... it was a great confidence building session for me!
I have to say, if anyone have a chance to go to a Drupalcon, you should certainly go. I've never before felt so welcome. People are very friendly, and I especially felt that there was a strong camaraderie between the women in attendance, and I felt welcome to approach anyone and speak with her.
Thanks to the other women there for their encouraging advice! Keeping my fingers crossed :)
add on:BADCamp '08 attendance
I took an informal count during the keynote - there were at least 30 women at the keynote (not including Sprout), and I know I saw a number of women later who hadn't made the keynote (or at least I didn't remember seeing). Given that the registered attendance was 350, I think it was pretty close to 10% there also, if not higher =)
BADCamp attendance
I was there as well, and although I didn't count, I think that 10% is a reasonable estimate. I was pleasantly surprised.
No speakers though :-(
There was indeed a high turn-out of women at BADcamp but I couldn't help feeling disappointed that there were no women speakers. (My excuse for not presenting is that I only found out the day before that I was actually going to be attending ;-)
Agreed
Yes, that was disappointing. I often speak places, but I'm a very new Drupaler. Maybe next year.