Down with the barriers (to participation in Drupalcon)

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Jeff Veit's picture

Edit: changed the title from "Drupalcon for women" because while this conversation started about ways to remove barriers for women, it's not specific to women. It's for anybody who may feel excluded because of sex, race, religion, sexuality, age, skin color, health, experience, or whatever.

Are there specific things you'd like us to do at Drupalcon or before Drupalcon to address the needs of women who are thinking about coming to Drupalcon, or planning to come to Drupalcon?

Things I can imagine:

  • Ensure that there's more than just a Drupalchix BOF. Maybe a talk?
  • Some sort of spotlight celebrating Drupalchix
  • Either web pages or FAQ entries specifically aimed at women who are thinking of attending
  • Making sure that the T-shirt issue doesn't ever happen again. Duh.
  • A forum space on the website
  • Ensuring that we have more women presenters
  • Some quotas for us to aim for. [And to be clear to anyone reading who might be upset by this idea: I'm particularly aware that quotas can be viewed both very positively and very negatively, and may be a sensitive area. I mean this in the best way: if we have some targets - for example for the number of women speakers then that may be better than an amorphous 'More women presenters'. Please give me the benefit of doubt before flaming.]
  • One of the underlying themes in the conversation in Drupalchix is that you have to work harder than men to establish technical credentials. So maybe some sort of signposting that shortcuts that sort of thing. E.g Stars on the badges for 'I have written code', 'I have contributed modules', etc. This would apply to everyone.
  • A buddy system
  • An "I'm usually a bit shy to butt in" marker on badges - so that all our semi-autistic audience (and I'm allowed to say that cos I'm one of them) get a great big cluestick. This would apply to everyone.
  • Some sort of icebreaker. I don't what this could be, but I'm imagining things that force interaction... like partner badges - you get points for finding your partner badge at the conference. Again, doesn't just apply to women, but there are men who come who also need people to pull them into the action.
  • A session on interacting at Drupalcon, right near the beginning - a 'this is the way we do things' session which gives people some rules/framework that tells them that they are expected to randomly go up to other people and say 'What do you do with Drupal?'. Or maybe some other kind of icebreaker session.

I don't think these are likely to be the best ideas, and I know some of these are a bit off-the-wall but I'm brainstorming, so please forgive me if some of these are daft.

I'd like to generate a take-away list of things to do: I'm involved in Drupalcon London planning, so I hope we can take your suggestions and incorporate them.

I'm sure that Drupalcon should be addressing other people and subgroups too, for example age extremes compared to the community might be a problem too: really young people need a helping hand, and clearly some people who are older than our average need some support. It would be great to get a list of ideas which would not only benefit Drupalchix, but anyone else who isn't a white, male, straight, slightly introverted, developer/themer. (Marketing peeps, I'm looking at you! Maybe, for once, you need help connecting. :-)

Comments

My 8 cents...

webchick's picture

Important note! This is my opinion. Not some kind of "official" opinion of Drupalchix. And definitely not the opinion of women everywhere. Just me. :) I welcome and encourage counter-opinions.

Observing the replies in the Influence of Subtlety post, the recurring theme I picked up is make gender a non-issue.

Let's examine things that had a positive effect:

  • When Allie was asked cordially if she was going to Belgium as a fellow contributor, not as a woman.
  • When Karen was treated the same as the other contributors when folks first met her at OSCMS Sunnyvale, despite her age and gender.
  • Allie gets energy from exciting conversations - or even arguments - that transcend gender and culture.
  • I became hooked on Drupal because of its inclusive and respectful environment, based not on my gender but on what I could bring to the table as a contributor.
  • Miche had her life changed by two co-workers who mentored her and treated her as an equal.
  • Laura was made to feel welcome at Drupalcon because Dries introduced himself, not because she was a woman but because she was a contributor in the community who had built several high-profile websites and ran a Drupal consulting company.

Let's examine things that had a negative effect:

  • When Allie was asked "This is a technical BoF. Are you sure this is where you intended to be?" by someone who was using her gender to draw conclusions about her abilities.
  • When Dries's keynote implied to some that women are not technical, sex objects, and that moms need special help.
  • When women have to reset expectations because of their gender to be on a level playing field with everyone else.
  • When Liza endures 20 sexist comments and then gets attacked for speaking out publicly about the 21st.
  • When women cannot find t-shirts that fit their size/shape, it sends the message that we are an "other".

So the conclusion I draw from these lists is that as conference organizers, community managers, and so on, our job is to build an environment where women can just be awesome, which means eliminating stupid crap that draws attention, creates alienation, or causes ridicule because of our gender.

So with that in mind, going back to your list of suggestions...

  • Drupalchix session: An actual session on Drupalchix seems like it's drawing special attention to women, which makes us feel like "other." I don't personally think it's a good idea.

    Now, one could argue that the BoF does this "othering" as well, but it's deliberately held as more of a social thing... a chance to meet and greet other women in the community who are doing awesome things. This point of this is three-fold:

    1. Provide a nice "welcome mat" for women who are attending their first Drupalcon (almost always half or so of the attendees). They get to meet some friendly faces within their first day or so of the 'con, and as a result have someone to sit with at lunch the rest of the time. :)

    2. For a lot of women, meeting other women who are involved in technology is an absolutely mind-blowing experience since they work either solo or in an all-male environment and don't have any other women peers/role models.

    3. If needed, the BoF can provide a safe space to talk about potentially hot-button issues like sexism, racism, and homophobia.

    None of these really work well in front of a 200+ person audience. :P

    Now, if we broadened such a session to talk about aspects of our community as a whole, like the Drupal Code of Conduct, how our community handles conflict, ways in which our community encourages diversity, etc. and the Drupalchix group had reference made to it as part of this, I think that would be perfectly fine (and probably a really interesting session).

  • Drupalchix spotlight: Again, draws special attention to women, makes us feel like "other." But as above, if we had a "Community Spotlight" session that went through profiles of major contributors and lauded their work, and a lot of those people featured were women, it would have exactly the same effect, without the "othering."
  • Women FAQs: Same as above. Now. I do think it's a wonderful idea to have FAQs aimed at first-time Drupalcon attendees, but there's nothing about that that is gender-specific.
  • Ladies T-shirts +100. This is such a obvious thing to do that goes such a long way to making people feel included. While you're at it, please print some XXL and XXXL shirts, too.

    This isn't "othering". This is "sameing". :) That's why this one is a great idea.

  • Women Forum space: Nope. Othering. I can't think of anything women would need in a forum that can't be had in a unisex forum. It's also why the Drupalchix group is not restricted to women only (although the 2 hours a year in the BoF is, to protect the safe space).
  • More women presenters Yes. I think this is a good idea. The more women on stage, the more "same" the women attendees feel. You definitely should not remove men, nor should you put women on stage just for the sake of meeting some sort of quota. But I think making a concscientious effort to reach out to women who are doing awesome stuff in the community and encourage them to submit sessions is a great thing to do. But not because they're women. Because they're doing awesome stuff in the community.

    It would also be nice for a Drupalcon to have a woman keynote presenter. To date, there have only been women co-presenters on keynotes, with the guy getting the main billing. This is a bit off-putting. Someone like Kathy Sierra speaking at a Drupalcon would be amazing!

  • Quotas: I don't really like the idea of quotas. I more like the idea of the team making the sincere declaration of, "We will make a real effort to encourage more women to submit sessions at Drupalcons in order to increase the diversity of our speaker roster" and then just acting on it, as outlined above.

    With quotas, it feels like we could get into the situation where we boot more popular sessions out of the schedule so that we can accept a less popular session topic that happens to have a woman at the helm, or else we add women speakers to panels where they aren't really comfortable just so that we can boast about meeting our percentages. I don't feel either outcome creates a better Drupalcon experience for our attendees, men and women alike.

    I will say though that based on my research, we've been hitting ~10% women speakers in total, and ~20% sessions with a woman at the front of the room. If we are going down from those numbers to a significant degree, we probably need to do a serious look at recruitment techniques because something's way off.

The rest of your list talks about ways to encourage new Drupalcon attendees which is not remotely the same thing as "women." ;) But I think all of those ideas are great. I'll ponder that some more and see if I can come up with other ideas.

Oh, and once again...

webchick's picture

A heart-felt thank you for taking this inclusiveness issue seriously and for starting this dialog here. Great stuff.

Acceptance without "othering"

horncologne's picture

Angie! You hit the nail on the head with the term "othering" - I am making that part of my active vocabulary right now.

It's a much more elegant way to put what's been in my head for so long, which has been roughly:

"I don't actually give a crap what you look like, how you live your personal life or what you believe in if you are awesome and making a positive difference to the project. If you are nice, funny and/or good to have a few beers with, that's a nice bonus."

:-)

I spend a lot of my time introducing people to Drupal and I really like the idea of adding more of this "behavioral" stuff to my spiel in presentations and other contexts. I'd call it "Acceptance without othering".

The first thing I'd do is refocus and rescope this thread from "DrupalCon for women" to "DrupalCon for everyone" ...

Here's a couple of my proto-ideas so far. (Please adjust for my so-called "sense of humor" and that this is *ever so slightly* tongue-in-cheek):

Acceptance without othering. Be social, be respectful, be accepting, make a difference ...

  • 1) Everyone at DrupalCon (or any Drupal event) is an expert at something, so we all have something to learn from each other.
  • 2) Be social. Some of the most important connections happen in the hallways, at the bar or by running into other Drupalistas on the street.
  • 3a) Drupal's culture is very accepting. You will only be judged by your contribution to the project. We're all weird. Your own weirdness, shyness, strangeness and smarts are nothing compared to the rest of us. Get over it and dig in!
  • 3b) Drupal's culture is very accepting. If you are judging anyone by any other measure other than their positive or negative affect on the project, you're not doing it right. We're all weird. Get over it.
  • 4) Make a difference.

Oh, and t-shirt sizes: Some of the smallest members of our community (my kids) feel very left out by the complete lack of anything small enough for them. My dad-wuffie would be greatly increased if I were able to bring home kid-sized Ts.

+1 for title/scope change

Jeff Veit's picture

I'll change the title as soon as I can find one that's edgy enough to encourage participation but without leading to exploding blood pressure for anyone, and it also has to be self explanatory which is why I've ruled out borrowinng KarenS's "Down with 'othering'" which is otherwise an awesome title.

[Originally posted 2010; now

jp.stacey's picture

[Originally posted 2010; now deleted bit that webchick already discussed, having re-read the entire thread in order]

An "I'm usually a bit shy to butt in" marker on badges - so that all our semi-autistic audience (and I'm allowed to say that cos I'm one of them) get a great big cluestick. This would apply to everyone.

I like this, although it could be hard to pitch right. Maybe we can have a whole series of badges:

  • Talks too much
  • Quiet
  • A bit shy
  • Massively insecure

Could that wide spread of badge types prevent "badges" from basically becoming an indicator of, well, Asperger's tendencies? Lots of us sit on that spectrum anyway, as there's a lot of room there: from sudden social tiredness and blanking people accidentally, through avoiding social contact with strangers, to actively not giving a damn about socialising!

I also like buddying and icebreaking somehow. I think it mixes things up a bit, although I imagine it could fall flat for a lot of people. Could we have say social timeouts and people who are feeling sociable wearing a "say hi!" badge at that point, rather than an uninterrupted talk schedule with lots of collisions and, er, really good talks you don't want to miss? Actually, scratch that. Maybe along with a bar - and I don't want to denigrate the mightiness of Awesomesauce - there could also be somewhere non-alcoholic, fairly cheap and reasonably quiet to go to after sessions end for the day, and chat to people.

If we're expanding this discussion to include other minorities, I think it would also be really useful if conference centres were checked in advance for decent access for people with restricted mobility. The Bella Center outside Copenhagen felt like they'd never seen someone in a wheelchair before in all their born days. Wheelchairs had to potter round in the back rooms behind stages, finally coming through the same doors as the speakers for the main three rooms. I don't know whether that will really put people at their ease and feel not-othered.

Just wondering

Dailydog's picture

Has anyone asked women why they don't attend? I'm not saying you all are wrong in your assumptions (and I am a woman), but it might be nice to have some kind decent study to get to the bottom of this problem.

It might be interesting to find out how other conference organizers deal with the problem. On a larger scale it might be interesting to find out if women in general attend conferences less and why. The specific whys, and I think they'll turn out to run deeper than the lack of recognition by men.

Perhaps a sociology or psychology student can tackle the research.

Lies

I think this is very sensible

Jeff Veit's picture

I think you are 100% right - we should be asking our target groups what the barriers are. We'll see what we can do.

Of course talking here is part of that research: if you have friends who use/work with Drupal, but who haven't come to a Drupalcon then it would be useful to hear from them.

Bravo

kae76's picture

Webchick I am in full agreement with your 'othering' statement…

It should be about inclusivity, not for stats sake or for ‘looking’ like we play nice, it should be about encouragement and be engaging for all.

I would not want to be sitting in session where the presenter is there just because of their gender…

Bluntly put, I don’t give a flying **** about race, colour, gender, age: I want quality, inspiration, workable tools/ideas basically a good return on my 'investment'… as I’m sure it is the same for many of the attendees my employer does not pay for me to attend theses amazing events, I work hard to get the money required; also I want to have a good time!

I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to a ‘session’ specifically for women… that would make me feel marginalised (even if the content was meant otherwise… I probably wouldn’t turn up)

I am new to the Drupal community and as of yet have not had any specific ‘sexist’ experiences so far everybody has treated me as an equal, and have been friendly. Dries' keynote just made sigh rather than being offended… (I understood he was trying to be humorous and it fell flat, and perhaps ill considered with his bracketing of ages/gender expectations)

Copenhagen being my first ‘con’ I feel that the idea for 'Drupal Code of Conduct', session/talk or similar would be beneficial for all.

I was also unaware about the drupalchix BOF… in fact the whole BOF was quite intimidating (this is my personal perception of it) one BOF I did hover near was fab… geomapping/location. (my own paranoia about not knowing enough is my own to deal with and get over... or is it? >>not sure!)

I have predominately worked in education for the last 9 years, in various roles (lecturer, facilitator, technician, learning support assistant; working with a broad age range 8 to 65), my job has always been about the inclusivity of individuals with consideration to differentiation, empowerment, ownership and most importantly enjoyment! … Gender not being necessarily the issue but the individuals learning styles, prior experience/skill attainment and personal requirements.

The icebreaker sessions can work but I am not sure on such a large scale, however having ‘I have contributed etc’ on the ID tags would be a great way to identify people as their skill level.

I attended the session "Communicating Drupal visually" in Copenhagen with Heather James & Stella Power they used the sticker idea (kittens, flags, hearts) as a way to help people to be identified as to their skill/experience level, this was a nice way to get people to figure out which level they were at, speak to the person next to them and then move beyond the first awkward part of any getting to know you ‘moment’… (we were activity encouraged to mix levels) this I can see being developed into a larger session in its own right ...and possibly an icebreaker type session?.

At the moment I’m not (yet) able to contribute with code or design… still working on that! but I would love to get involved with the Drupalcon London! Who could I talk to?

Karen :)

You talk to me for Drupalcon London :-)

Jeff Veit's picture

Smoothstr aka Jeff Veit.

:)

kae76's picture

Hey Jeff,

I'm going to the London meetup on the 23rd, would be nice to catch up there,
... I've spotted the Cambridge meetup but can't make it :(

Speak soon :)
Karen

Down with 'othering'!

KarenS's picture

Well said, webchick and horncologne, I couldn't agree more.

Instead of having sessions for women I think it would be beneficial to do something broader. Stuff like:

  • Have a session on how to contribute to Drupal for people who are relatively new to Drupal, or who want to step up their involvement but aren't sure how to do it, regardless of whether they're women or not. We've had those before, they're still important. The best way for women to integrate into the community is by becoming contributors in one way or another.

  • Might be nice to have a sticker on the badge to indicate 'This is my first DrupalCon', and encourage everyone else to interact with those people and get to know them and help them find their way around. Again, regardless of whether or not they're women.

  • Might be nice to have something on the badge about your interest area -- code, themeing, documentation, media, jquery, UX, etc. -- to make it easy to find others with similar interests and start conversations.

  • Might be nice to have a session for people who are attending their first DrupalCon to help orient them to the community and to the way DrupalCons work. Tell them about BOFs and about getting involved and point them to sessions that might be useful.

  • T-shirts for kids and XXL sizes! I never thought of that. Of course! Drupalistas come in all shapes and sizes.

Drupal(Con) orientation session ...

horncologne's picture

Might be nice to have a session for people who are attending their first DrupalCon to help orient them to the community and to the way DrupalCons work. Tell them about BOFs and about getting involved and point them to sessions that might be useful.

We did "Welcome to Drupal(Con)" sessions in SF and CPH and there will be one in Chicago, too!

The intention of these sessions so far has been to:
1 - Introduce newcomers to basic Drupal jargon and technical functionality to enable them to get more out of all the other sessions and the conversations going on around them: node, view, hook, etc.
2 - Discuss basic concepts of how the Drupal community works (drupal.org. groups.d.o, api.d.o, IRC, etc.), local meet-ups, and so on.

In every section of the presentation, we included slides pointing to other sessions at the Con (time, room, title, etc.) for people interested in learning more about the given subject at hand: themeing, commerce, community, whatever, etc. This has met with very positive feedback.

For Chicago, what I'd really like to add is a more of what we're talking about here. I have implied some of it before and meant all of it in my heart! But next time I will say it out loud and up front.

I am taking notes from this thread!

:-)

Different people face different issues

Jeff Veit's picture

What worries me about being general is that we don't give specific help or specific reassurance that people who don't match the majority demographic won't feel out of place.

True story: I was in Washington DC one 4th of July, and there's always a concert on the lawn of the Capitol. There was a crowd of at least 20,000 people. I saw only one African American family, and that was because they happened to be sitting near us. They left because it was 'too white', Back then Washington DC had a population of something like 2/3 African American.

The lesson I take from this is that we need to offer people who don't feel that they match the majority demographic specific re-assurance and help if necessary. We need to tell them that they aren't outsiders, and maybe demonstrate that there are role-models for them in the community. (That's you Webchick. Hmm - maybe an 'Official role model' badge :-) And we need to make sure that we deal with any specific issues (and I don't know what these are, so I'm making the next bit up), but they might be making sure that we have as Muslim-friendly a timetable as we can, to allow for prayer, making sure that if we have single parent families that we have childcare on tap (hooray! we do that already). I would love to find out as many of these barriers to participation as possible and to be able to specifically reassure people that we've dealt with them. No othering people.

That's not to say we shouldn't also deal with the general stuff like sessions for people who are new to Drupal without othering. We should.

Yes, but keep it simple ...

horncologne's picture

Messaging: "Drupal is for everyone." We should make it totally, absolutely clear to all and sundry that we will welcome you to the project with open arms, whoever you are, if you're friendly, open and respectful.

Action: We should also do whatever we can that is simple and cost-effective to make that true. I mean from smiling and saying "hi", to daycare, to lots of vegetarian food, to accessibility and so on.

Don't forget Drupal: If, however, we get bogged down in ecstatic politically-correct micro-management specifically catering to all conceivable residents of the earth (we are all minorities almost everywhere and that kind of sounds like "maxi-othering"), we will get bogged down in that instead of ecstatically making Drupal rock harder.

Keep it simple: In a totally positive way, we don't care what you are, we care who you are and what you do.

glad you mentioned this

confetti's picture

@Jeff, I am so glad you mentioned this.
I would hate to be put into categories and to be watched: Does she need this, does she like that. "respectful" is a fine word, "we are all minorities" is another good phrase. So part of it is to be able to integrate into a community and not to wait for them to comfort me. Sometimes I just want to be special without anybody remarking on it. Isn't that sth to aim for?

I like the idea of badges: looking for - giving... and also first time participant or Drupal-newbie. So if you mark "newbie" you know this person will welcome your help, if they do not show this, even if they are new, then they want to get around taking the action themselves.

Help where help is needed but give everybody the chance to adjust her/himself to the surrounding if needed. You can never do it right for everybody.

Thanks for this thread, good idea.

more specific: "DrupalCon is for YOU."

. . .
------------------------------------------------
Bettina
Don't Follow Trends: Set Them!
https://drupal-training.de

Get to know you / give & take stickers +1

chachasikes's picture

For my first 2 Drupalcons I often had moments in the actual conference space where you stand with a group of strangers and have no idea what to say. Working on 'get to know you stickers' could be really helpful.

My friends run an event here called "Give & Take" - they print up stickers that say 'I know this...' 'I want to know about this...' and everyone fills them out and it is very helpful for getting people to talk & build interconnections. The actual language on the sticker changes based on the context, but there is always an opportunity for exchange built into the format.

I think I heard someone else saying something about having sometime like this for Drupalcon Chicago - might be cool to have in a badge format - but might also just be a good recommendation for BoF organizers, or for socializing... because also, your interests can change during the course of Drupalcon. :)

Awesome idea ...

horncologne's picture

That sounds like a practical, real-world articulation of my idea that we all can learn from each other. Everyone is an expert at something.

These things need to be largish "Hello, my name is ..." style stickers and participants would ideally have access to a bunch of them to be able to change/refresh our interests as the days go by.

This could work for Drupal Dojo

gusaus's picture

I wonder if something similar could work in the Drupal Dojo. Experts/mentors/etc could have badges or belts showing their specific level of expertise. That would enable those wanting to learn those skills an easier way to connect.

Speaking of, the Drupal Dojo has a pretty good track record of being a very welcoming place for Drupalers at all levels to demonstrate their skills and learn by contributing. The ongoing 'Building With Drupal' sessions is just one example of a forum that is open to 'anyone' who would like to lead a session.

Gus Austin

DrupalChix BOF idea for Chicago

miche's picture

Lets have a BOF sponsored by DrupalChix but NOT limited to only women attendees. I would love to see a discussion about our favorite modules. One of the most difficult things as a newbie is knowing which is the best tool and why. This would be a great opportunity for DrupalChix to share our wide range of skills and approaches to tackling problems. Although I have been Drupaling for years, I always love to hear about how other people solve common and difficult theming/development challenges.


Michelle Lauer
michellelauer.com

What I think the whole

Xano's picture

What I think the whole 'female Drupal people' issue is about, is that Drupal is run mostly by men. As with any group of people, men have certain traits and needs, and if they are in charge, they will naturally make sure those needs are satisfied. But sometimes it happens that we realise Drupal isn't only about men, and that women may have different needs, and that we want to try to satisfy those.

Masculine as we are, we are unable to imagine how women feel about this and we sometimes make the mistake of putting them in the spotlights too much. We're just bad at feelings and emotions. We have been for thousands of years and we probably will be for many more.

That said, as a guy, I think it's a good idea to ask the female community what they want. Not because we want them to feel special, but precisely because we don't. Equality means to treat people the same, but also differently, if their needs require that.

One thought I have been having is that most women working with Drupal are active in management, design and communication, rather than development. Most men love technical stuff, but relatively few women do. Based on this I think we can attract more women by focusing more on these areas of expertise. Not because I'm a guy and I like women, but because I love diversity. Girls, what do you think about this?

Down with stereotypes...

webchick's picture

One thought I have been having is that most women working with Drupal are active in management, design and communication, rather than development. Most men love technical stuff, but relatively few women do.

I personally think that this opinion is not rooted in actual fact, and that persistent, stereotypical attitudes like this is a big reason that technical women get turned off from open source communities, and even technology as a whole. It requires a woman to reset expectations in order to be treated as an equal, and it's incredibly frustrating.

Please take a look at what women in the Drupal community are actually presenting about. jQuery. SimpleTest. Deployment. Development environments. Mapping. Mail systems. Coder module. CCK and Field API. Date and Calendar modules. Theming (which, especially in Drupal, is most definitely coding). Drupal 7. The command line. Case studies on how big Drupal sites were built.

It's true that there are also women leading sessions on business, project management, design, etc. but there are men leading those types of sessions, too (and they probably even out-number the women, given our speaker gender breakdown). And it's certainly important to reach out to women who have non-technical expertise and encourage them to speak, because their skills are just as valid and interesting as those with technical expertise.

But making sweeping, generalizing, stereotypical statements about either gender -- you managed to do this with men, too, in your post by classifying them as insensitive and unemotional, which I would think most would take serious issue with -- works directly against our goal to increase diversity. Be very careful with that.

But you are right about the general point that we all have blind spots. It helps a lot if the organizing team goes out of its way to make sure that the organizing team of the 'con is a microcosm of the types of people they hope to feel welcome in the conference. Each of us will naturally be more acutely aware about diversity issues that affect us directly, and can help avoid situations well in advance that might make people feel unwelcome.

Drupal is run mostly by ...

jrdixey's picture

who, exactly?

Drupal as a whole is an open source community, so it's "run" by all of us. Rather than trying to "ask the female community what they want", perhaps a better place to start would be to notice that there is no one "female community" within Drupal, any more than there is a single, unified "male community"; we are all individuals, with individual interests.

The badge/sticker idea is a great one. Let people self-identify what they're interested in. It will help start conversations and perhaps we won't have to do as much expectation-resetting if our badges declare visibly that we are (or aren't) into any particular aspect of Drupal.

Pyramid Outreach and Survey

jdwalling's picture

Drupalcon is the top of a pyramid* with participation levels below it. Outreach and survey tools for each level that appeals to minorities** equally would be a good thing. For example, NCWIT has "Outreach-in-a-Box: Discovering IT" for middle schools:
http://www.ncwit.org/resources.res.box.outreach.html .

By preparing people at various levels for successful entry and progression, Drupalcons will naturally benefit from the influx of more minorities.

*Pyramid levels: Drupalcons, Drupal Summits, Drupalcamps, Drupal user groups, IT user groups, IT firms, IT schools, higher education, secondary education, etc. (Pyramid is an inaccurate but useful construct for this discussion.)

**"Minorities" is used in the sense of representation in IT/Drupal as well as percent of population.

...giving myself the right to write...

veriKami's picture

Following Angie's incentives to express one's views - this is mine :-)

Written from a different place and perspective - which is important, because personal, single person experiences are valuable - and if we talk about community, it really consists of single human individuals, whose experience, expectations, opportunities and objectives may be very different... I deeply belive that this - this diversity is the sense - and that's why I try to write the most subjective - absolutely not the claimant the right to universalism, in opposition - being strongly anti-universal ;-)

In this context also (with the rest of what was said) I wanted to suggest a radically different approach to the problem of "otherness" - not in terms of negative characteristics, which separates us from any potential "unity" (homogeneity, ideality, consistency, equality) but constitutive property for the entire Drupal community. A look at the "otherness" as a base - an inherent, ontological component of the reality in which we move, in which we are all "others" for ourselfs - and all our features like the genius, intellectual and social skills, language, gender, history, culture, religion, etc... are only and the only point (and in fact pretext) through which we grow, learn, and threw which we can communicate. If this is obvious for such feature as "programming capability" - if we accept the proposed "otherness" model - every distinctive feature is a positive, added value and raises the positive growth potential.

Continue to follow that thought - is precisely this difference is interesting in the other human being, in a social group or in the world - only this is interesting and raises the challenge - the cognitive, creative potencjal of change and development - in the scale of individual, community, world - this tension. And that's why it should be noticed, honored, have the opportunity and place of articulation, positively valuated, desired.

I think that the symbolic change of title of this post is an expression of that and I am totally support this - not to treat in some extraordinary way only gender difference. But also - not ignoring it, because it is an important, differentiating ingredient of reality, which is experienced by all people - and as such - can be treated as a kind of good pretext, a catalyst, a starting point, the place from which we could start working on diversity in the scale of a whole. One might call this kind of "diversity policy" although we do not have to be so much academics ;-)

On the other hand also - there is absolutely no possible abolition of otherness - "othering" is not an act of will but the fact we have any influence in a very limited extent. I am a woman - ok - we can blur it or skip it - but simultaneously I have also a completely different cultural background than participants of this discussion, my everyday spoken language is different than English, my social and economic situation is significantly different and, in connection with this, I can feel only in a limited way close or similar to most of you present here. I will always be different, being who I am and here where I am - in finite time and space of a single human life.

I was @ Drupal Con Copenhagen. This was my first conference, I hope not the last, but it is not at all certain... Although it was a fantastic time for me, but financially madness. I'm just wondering how can I pay for electricity... Why am I writing about this...? It's not awesome nor funny... Well - in the sense of universal phenomenon of "othering" and differentiation - the effect is just here, reveals a trivial difference for West versus East (North versus South). One of the many, like gender, race, etc. because different "otherness" are overlaping, are essentially infinite sequence.

I was @ Drupal Con Copenhagen - desperately hoping that I would meet "someone", that "something" would going to happen - that I would find some place for myself... Still in my head echoes a slogan: "Come for the software, stay for the community"... Luckily it happened, I met great friends, I was at the Drupalchix meeting. I have to write it because I think that it may be need for many women, a very important and common. Alienation in the workplace (because of an abstract of belonging to the "other sex") for females is gigantic. In any case, it is precisely the experience, the need - meeting the other Drupal women was for me the most important value of the conference.

That, too, was not enough for me - the possibility of meeting live, physically real people, the possibility of conversation, sharing experiences - not just technical (which I have sufficient amount in everyday work or internet access) but also social, practical issues. From my perspective (which also is changing, because I'll never be so scared as "the first time" ;-) that would be a plus to know about some "friendly inviting women's place" much earlier. At some higher, system's level perhaps - web site, program of the conference. BoF organized at the last moment and ad hoc is far too little. I'm also not too sure if the formula is most appropriate, because the same term "BoF" for people who are first time sounds strange and mysterious, not necessarily invitingly. It seems to me that "something" - kind of introductory meeting should be arranged in advance. Strictly social event, with the title clear and legible to all. It would also be nice if it could be a constant "community" point of the official program of any conference.

Considering that the Drupal community is developing, as in the Dries's keynote: "exponentially" - Foreigners and Others will be more and more... including women, so sex scandal probably will arrive (sarcasm: sorry, but I can not deny myself, I still, however, cannot forget). Listening to Copenhagen's keynotes, as a female assigned person I was slightly terrified... happily there has been several other people to talk, there has been some kind of contrreaction, but an unpleasant impression remained. Not on the personal level, a joke is a joke - nothing that I heard many times worse, but in the sense of vision for the future. Growth for the growth is not any value, and if we love Drupal (!!!) then I think we may also expect "something more". If you're a woman, you do not know anyone and you hear something like that on the entrance, you would like to go out and simply can never get back. I fortunately stayed... so now you have a "pleasure" to watch, how I grappling with the thoughts and (medium known to me) English language ;-))

Stop! Enough fiction and post-conference psychological confessions. I'll try to write something more specifically:

1) I'm very happy with this thread, the sensitivity of Our Men ;-) and generally - with the division of social issues. In the impressive growth of Drupal this is "underrepresented" subject, just like the "women underrepresentation" which we have in the description of the group. I think, this is worth to work on, and we can change this, and if I can, willingly to help. The overall increase is cool, maybe even sexy, but much more important is the thought and question, that the growth has to be for Something. It would be nice if one of its objectives and results is euphemistically a "better world", a better place for more people.

2) All inclusive ideas I like very much. But I can not agree with the complete exclusion of gender as an aspect of the problem. Although "down with 'othering'!" statement sounds very nice - positive and the ideal vision of the world in which we are all equal... Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité... kind of witchcraft... but two questions: whether this in fact is...? and: does it really matter...? do not give me peace and, as I wrote at the beginning, I am quite the follower of the opposite vision, sanctification of a diversity as a base and a starting point. Places of "difference" are forming "new", there the sense is begining, tension and progress, kind of hope for the future, hope for change for which it is worthwhile to bother. I'd rather say we are fundamentally different, but let us find the point at which it is possible to meet... any single point, which allows the conversation... good, friendly, inviting place where one can share hers individual awesomeness.

3) Omission of gender difference also has other dangerous consequences. System, the culture in which we live is unfortunately still patriarchal and fallogocentric - and if some things seem to be transparent, they often are implicitly masculine. We know from the sociology of the concept of "patriarchal dividend", meaning that all men, by virtue of their gender, have in social life, and especially in public space preferences, which they enjoy under the traditions and stereotypes, often without any additional competence or merit. It is a lot of similar issues, but I do not want to talk too much at this point, in the end this is not a Gender Studies department ;-)

Not far away, however, searching for - a simple example:

"Equal pay for women not likely till 2067"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/19/equal-pay-women-2057

What can I say...? I entered in the identity card "woman"... I have and always will. What can I say ...? I do not want to be a man, do not want to be deprived of this gender difference, which constitutes my identity. I want - as a woman - to have the same salaries as men, as a woman - be in line and fully recognized. In order to achieve this - my claim at the level of "gender" must be articulated.

4) Frankly speaking I am surprised that most women's expression goes in the direction of omitted aspects of "womanhood" and distinctness, as if it was taking away their value. Maybe there is some significant cultural difference, that are difficult to recognize by me, and in this context hard to support. However, my statement - by definition subjective ;-) is not to critique this option - I just want to share "other view" from the "other place" - hoping that it will be a "positive value added". While I understand the starting point - in Poland (where I come from) these are a frequent political strategies of LGBT movement - however it does not bring the expected effects. The recognition that "we are just like others" is only possible to a certain impassable border. In the case of a lesbian/gay for example, is so that at this time most people declare the acceptance of such unions, but when it starts to talk about their legal recognition - the majority is opposed. On the other hand, virtually all activities carried out from the feminist position starts from broadcasting and adding value of "womanhood" as such. We definitely want to be different and definitely we would like this to be recognized and positively valuated.

5) Apropos "underrepresentation" - again - I doubt whether the policy of "we are just the same", this aspect of the neglect of gender can improve something... In the name of "politics of representation" I will rather vote for increase the number of places for women - personally I do not have any problems with things like: forum or any other special place - in any sense, I do not feel insulted or discriminated. Rather needed and invited. I feel that this point of view could be taken into consideration - it is not discrimination or ghettoisation the very existence of "place" - to the point where participation is not mandatory it is only added value. Support for representation, presence, visibility... For the willing - giving options. For people from outside - visible - so potentially attractive. Type of invitation, the outstretched hand, a visible gesture, a place. I think it is good to have in mind this type of message and aspect.

6) Looking at the statistics posted by Angie (great & important work - thanx :-)) - at the conference is virtually constant number of women 10/20% - well known from Sociology, that the interests of the group are not represented below critical mass described in the literature for a minimum of 30% - I'm average glad... distinct upward trend in the U.S. is very nice (lucky you !!! probably from that point you can start to "stop othering") but looking at the EU and the Copenhagen :-((( ...all our hope in London !!! I'm not sure whether I could be in Chicago, but I would like to be in London. I would like also the power of something real, useful for Drupal community to do - if there are any options for visitors from further parts of Europe...? It could be a realy nice and inclusive possibility ;-)

7) Still wondering over the greater presence of women and referring to suggestions apropos Angie "drupalchix session" - I really like the idea of "normal 200+ sessions" ;-) here, of course full consent that the bad theme would be "women" or "drupalchix" as drupalchix - but taking the assumptions: a) this is a "community session" - the result of the discussion initiated here; b) it is the need for the whole drupal community as a place or a tool to further responsible and sustainable development; c) it is related to programming and is Drupal based project (possibly) integrated with the bigger infrastructure... something with title: "doing Drupal on Drupal for Drupal" ;-)) I think that it would be really interesting for all - the nature of the presentation of a internal case study - personally I would be very happy if I could commit in something like that. Immediately I'm thinking about data visualizing tools with very nice statistical/geographical/gender graphs and interfaces, which in the form of a sketch I started to analyze prior to Copenhagen on Managing News... but that's only some of my fantasies and loose thoughts...

I greet all of you from cold and gray Poland, where I'll probably soon fall into gray autistic depression and not write anything more, sorry if it sounded critical and not positive, but I tried to be honest and to share plenty of ideas. I was so good to be with you @ Copenhagen... that one can not even imagine...

Good Energy & Best Wises 4 all of U :-)))
veriKami (cyberfeministic)

Just for the Record...

webwriter's picture

Let me echo the sentiments here that I don't think women need training wheels. The idea that we are "less technical" is part of the problem.

As has been said over in over in soooo many industries, I don't want to be treated as a "woman Drupaler", just a Drupaler.

While I love the idea of a social BOF session with DrupalChix I don't think sessions aimed at "women's issues" are anything that appeal to me, personally. My level of knowledge and project needs are what drives my session choices, not the gender of the presenters. And I can't imagine how I use Views is any different than how a man uses Views, for example...

Just my $.02

"A session on interacting at

jcfiala's picture

"A session on interacting at Drupalcon, right near the beginning - a 'this is the way we do things' session which gives people some rules/framework that tells them that they are expected to randomly go up to other people and say 'What do you do with Drupal?'. Or maybe some other kind of icebreaker session."

Are we supposed to do that? I've been to a couple of Drupalcons, but I can't say anyone's come up to me to say something like that - or at least, not that I remember.

I'm seriously asking. I'm a bit shy in crowds.

-john

It might be me only..

Jeff Veit's picture

..but I do it all the time - people aren't fazed by it, and after you've done it a bit it's easy. Most people really seem to like someone else taking the initiative and it helps a lot that you already know that you already have something in common. And most people who go to conferences want to meet other people!

Sidebar: I hope you don't feel like the drupalguys are hijacking your space Drupalchix. We can move this conversation somewhere else if you'd prefer, since it's turned into a more general discussion.

Meta sidebar: Sometime, probably next week, I'll do a round-up of all the points that seem to have support unless someone else gets there first.

Speaking for myself, I am

arianek's picture

Speaking for myself, I am really happy to have Drupalguys partaking in the discussion and showing interest in how to make the community more welcoming, equal, etc. It's about gender as well as general acceptance, openness, etc., which IMO is everybody's business, and I think we'll be more successful overall when it comes to improving on these things the more people of all age, sex, gender, ethnicity, we have on board.

Drupalchix Solidarity Committee and Allied Auxiliary Service++ (ref: http://twitter.com/bangpound/status/3569785931)

Summary

Jeff Veit's picture

Firstly, thanks everyone for weighing in, and especially thanks Angie for those stats

In no particular order, I think our take-home from this discussion is:

  • There is not much appetite for women speakers because they are women. We want people who have something to say about Drupal. It would be good if there were more women saying things about Drupal. See the next point.
  • We want to encourage awesome people to present regardless of who they are, but it would be nice if we can encourage anyone who might be under rating themselves. If the figures on women presenters are going down, we need to ask why and fix it. So we need some sort of outreach program, and some monitoring.
  • There is some appreciation of Drupal stories (for instance - case studies) which involve gender as one factor. We want to acknowledge gender to be an intrinsic, but neutral part of what we are about; it's not a defining element but it sometimes needs attention to redress imbalances. (I need to find better language for this sentiment. I hope that this is clear enough.) This is true for anything else that people might feel is othering.
  • The Drupalcon team had better make sure that there are T-shirts for women, and enough of them.
  • We must be sure that there are T shirts in all sizes - kids through to XXXL
  • There is strong support for identity method telling people something about where the person sees themselves in the Drupal landscape - this might be on the badge, or it might be stickers, or badges, and this extends to using this as an icebreaker. There are lots of good ideas here, and it needs some thought to bring them together into something coherent that doesn't involve overwhelming complexity. Some people are at Drupalcon to meet other people, and everything we can help to facilitate this is valuable.
  • We want an init($session) or new $session for Drupalcon newbies - might cover Drupal basics too. This should be the first slot on the first full day. Sorry about the weak programmer joke.
  • Drupalchix' BOF needs to be on the schedule from early on, and visible on the same schedule as the talks. It needs to be clear what a BOF is when people read the program for the first time.

I haven't included absolutely everything that has been discussed, but I think I have all the main points. If there's anything that you think that I've missed that really should be here, don't hesitate to say so.

The whole thing about

Xano's picture

The whole thing about opinions is that they aren't based on facts. The problem with facts is that we don't have them all. The problem with our opinions is that they can overshadow facts.

I still think that the average woman isn't interested in tech as much as the average guy (that's just our nature). However, Drupal may not have an average community, which is not a bad thing, but which invalidates my opinion even more than the opinion, being an assumption, itself does. Women in the Drupal community turned out to like tech very much. Bad luck for everybody who thought differently.

But making sweeping, generalizing, stereotypical statements about either gender -- you managed to do this with men, too, in your post by classifying them as insensitive and unemotional, which I would think most would take serious issue with -- works directly against our goal to increase diversity. Be very careful with that.

The part about men being insensitive was a joke. I'm a guy myself. Why would I want to insult my own 'kind'? This is just me. I make jokes about everything. At other times, I'm very serious about the same topics.

the sensitivity of Our Men ;-)

Exactly ;-)

Also, I believe a lot of people overreact when it comes to minorities within the community. "There should be a DrupalCon Asia! The Asians are left out!" But what if there is no community there? "Women can be coders too!", which is true, but it doesn't help you if you go around shouting women can do more than cook food. Just make clear what you do and that you're good at it. I don't just say this to women in tech communities, but this is how (IMO!) people should behave in general. Instead of complaining, please realise that the problem probably wasn't caused intentionally. This isn't directed at you webchick (or maybe it is, I don't know how how everybody responded to Dries' sexist remarks in Copenhagen, for instance). I don't think it's a good thing we make assumptions about women in tech (or about anyone else for that matter), but just as the people who make such assumptions should shut up and think before they say something, so should the people they said something about. This just applies to everybody.

But you are right about the general point that we all have blind spots. It helps a lot if the organizing team goes out of its way to make sure that the organizing team of the 'con is a microcosm of the types of people they hope to feel welcome in the conference. Each of us will naturally be more acutely aware about diversity issues that affect us directly, and can help avoid situations well in advance that might make people feel unwelcome.

And this is what I'd like to see. I admit people can make assumptions that feel women unwelcome. I do. I try not to, but I do.

Drupal as a whole is an open source community, so it's "run" by all of us. Rather than trying to "ask the female community what they want", perhaps a better place to start would be to notice that there is no one "female community" within Drupal, any more than there is a single, unified "male community"; we are all individuals, with individual interests.

As long as there are women who share the same interest in Drupal, they are a group, or a 'community'. Behavioural scientist speaking here.

From a community member point of view I can imagine you don't want to stand out, or feel left out. Please say so if other community members make you feel more like a minority (or however you feel about all this) in their attempts to make you a part of the community as a whole. Positive discrimination can be a good thing to make everybody equal, but it's easy to go too far.

Drupal is run mostly by ... who, exactly?

If we let the statistics speak, I think it's safe to bet my life on it that more men work on Drupal than women. I mean, webchick has worked her arse off to promote and finish Drupal 7. Possibly more than any guy. But because statistically more men make decisions than women, and some of those men make the wrong assumptions, we end up in discussions like the one we are having now. That's what I meant when I said Drupal is run mostly by men, in my opinion.

it's not a defining element but it sometimes needs attention to redress imbalances

Jeff (smoothstr) might even be the wisest participant in this discussion. It's all about balance.

Group <> Community

jrdixey's picture

A group is an objective classification of like things. A community is an organic outgrowth of common interests and experiences. There might be an intersection of the two, but that does not make them the same.

Information scientist speaking here. ;)

it doesn't help you if you go around shouting women can do more than cook food.

There has been no shouting, and no one here has asserted that women are best suited to cooking food. (Except, um, yeah, that would be that last post, right up there, see? yes, yours ... if only by insinuation. Which is too bad, because I completely agree with what you said right after that.)

Just make clear what you do and that you're good at it.

Hear, hear. The quickest way to break down stereotypes is to defy them.

So, to try to bring this around to common ground:

Women who are in Drupal for the code need to assert their interest (talk about it with other developers, introduce yourself to people at Drupal events as a developer, and if you have the time and inclination to, contribute).

Men (and women) need to drop their assumptions about what women (and men) are good at, and ask more questions instead, on an individual level.