Hey all -
I was remarking at our Vancouver D7 Release Party, how fantastic it was that we had so many women there, I was guessing about a third of the attendees (which I think was more than we usually get at our meetups).
Just made me curious as to how the other local user groups were doing, as far as getting more women into the Drupal community, and supporting them, etc.
I think I sometimes forget we still have a ways to go, working with so many fantastic contributors who are women all of the time - then I go to some session at DrupalCon or a particular night of the user group meetups, and there will be only me in the room...
So yes, status reports? I'd love to hear how everyone else has been doing, and whether anyone's been doing anything in particular to support more women joining up!
Comments
Victoria
Hiya
reporting from victoria, our school attracts a lot of women and we have two new female skilled Drupal dev's that just graduated here in Victoria that are really diving into it.
I was thinking, one thing that could really support new talent in the Drupal work is drupal shops willing to take on an intern. We get some fantastic students coming out of our 11 week drupal program, but Victoria is only so big.
At our DUG, the number of people are growing and I know many local females are not coming out, but to be fair, there are also a lot of men I know in our community that don't come out either. :) Busy lives we have I guess.
over and out.
Anne
I'm in Milwaukee and our
I'm in Milwaukee and our local DUG is overwhelmingly male - it tends to be one and sometimes one other woman.
Our experience in DC
I'm in DC/MD (live/work) and mostly attend the DC Drupal monthly gathering. It uses this format:
While attenders are mostly men, I feel comfortable talking with everyone, and have brought other women, who have returned. It's a wonderful place to learn and to network, organized by Development Seed (with Bonnie doing much of the organizing) and recently Phase2 Technology. I try to connect with as many women as possible (we do notice each other, and smile at a minimum).
Last year DC Drupal Training Meetup was organized to help folks develop their Drupal skills:
27 women (out of 135) have signed up on the Meetup page. I don't know what this year will bring, but I've found it a great learning experience.
Maryland is organizing a Drupal Camp, coming up soon. I'll try to attend, and see how it goes.
And we await Webchick's DC tour dates with growing excitement!
So, while there aren't any specific women's events, women have some good opportunities to get involved, network and learn in this area, at least in my experience.
Best, Marilyn
Sad in NYC
It's still horrendous in NYC. Maybe 2% of the group who shows is women. There are many super smart and well-known Drupalchix in NYC, but most of us are still somewhere on between boycotting and not-bothering. After what happened last year, it's hard to get any momentum around changing things. None of the leadership / the men have ever done anything proactive, and it's very likely that bringing up gender in any context at this point will just restart the crazy.
Jen Simmons
http://jensimmons.com
I started a Drupal User Group
I started a Drupal User Group in Surrey (suburb of Vancouver) so I wouldn't have to commute one hour to the group in downtown Vancouver, Canada. When we have designer/themer related topics, we get a good turnout of women attending. For example, when I gave a talk on converting PSD to Drupal theme, we had around 5 or 6 women out of 25 attendees. At most meetups, we have 1 or 2 women.
I was also glad to see a large turnout of women at the Drupal 7 Release party on Jan. 7th. It was open to anyone who worked with Drupal and being a social it was easier to attend. I would like to see more socials happen so we can have more time to chat and network with other Drupal peeps, both men and women.
Katy Laan
http://www.seascapewebdesign.com
Katy Laan, Senior Web Developer
SeascapeWebDesign.com
Seascape Web Interactive
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Nascent Drupal Group
Like Katy, we started a Drupal group down here in Bellingham (just over the border from Canada) so that local Drupallers wouldn't have to commute to Vancouver or Seattle to talk Drupal. We've had two meetings so far, up here at the WWU campus. (And we also welcome anyone on either side of the border who is interested in Drupal and wants to meet with a smaller group in our sleepy little college town instead of one of the big cities!)
We're probably switching to a public venue with food and drink service for the next one. Our attendance has been small to date. For our group the big differences aren't along gender lines so much as experience - we have people who are still evaluating Drupal, people who've worked with it for years, and people who are in between. That makes it a little challenging to choose topics (although our second one was easy since it coincided with the release of Drupal 7).
Jennifer Dixey
http://groups.drupal.org/bellingham/
http://meetup.com/bhamdrupal/
In my experience, the
In my experience, the experience factors along with area of expertise (developer, themer, designer, site owner, sysadmin, etc) seem to be the biggest differentiators. Some meetups I've been to have quite a few women ranging across experience and expertise ranges, others have had no women. I've never felt unwelcome at any (and hosted a few). I've yet to even hear of a non-Drupalchix meetup of all women, though.
PINGV | Strategy • Design • Drupal Development
Great to hear from everyone,
Great to hear from everyone, it's really interesting the variety of experiences going on. Glad it's mostly positive, that sucks that the NY one is still not working out... such a big city, I'm sure there are piles of women Drupallers around!