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Re: [LUG] Why are there so few women in our LUG - does this indicate there are few female Linux users ?

 

I have all sorts of thoughts on this.

I suppose reasons may be demographics. Devon and Cornwall were never known
for being hi-tech, although that has changed a lot. I have lived in the
plymouth area since 1980, btw, so I am not saying oo-ar!!

Personally I dont know any female 'geeks' as such. I would imagine there
is a smaller population of female computer users than anywhere else. Only
my thoughts and not definite.

My partner uses Linux as we only have one computer at home. She's quite
happy to use it from a user point of view, although it took probably about
2 years for her to be comfortable with it.

I am basing this from my partners point of view but women still have a
hard enough time in their careers. In those careers Windows is the
dominant OS. My partner occasionally brings work home and then gets
frustrated with Open Office when it doesn't do the same thing as Msoffice
and she used to shout and ask why can't we just use windows.

But she is not interested in the technical aspect. From what I gather from
women I know is it isn't their lack of  technical ability it's just pure
lack of interest and find it boring. If my partner really needs to get
something done that is beyond normal computer user she will do it. But
anything that involves tinkering she will find boring. She played Quake
Wars for a little bit but that's worn off now. Perhaps most women are just
more practical and don't see the point of wasting time?!?!?

My 6 year old daughter is showing promise though. So another thought is
perhaps a generation thing?

Also what about advertising. I don't know how well known this group is. I
have been here a while and only chip in occasionally.

Dave.
> I know that this may bring forth some contraversial comments but, am
> genuinely interested in what people think about this.
>
> We don't seem to have very many female members - off hand, I can't think
> of more than Clare, Gemma and myself (I apologise if I have missed
> anyone). However, certainly we are in a significant minority.
>
> I don't know if this is just our LUG or if this reflects the proportion
> of female Linux users overall.
>
> Members (male ones) have often commented that they find it difficult to
> get their partners to migrate over to Linux. Is there something about
> Linux that makes it "female unfriendly ? If there is, I don't know what
> it is ? I have seen some comments on other forums that this is because
> you need to be intelligent to use Linux obviously treat these sort of
> comments with the contempt that they deserve.
>
> We would all like to see more and more people use Linux and drop Windows
> (I assume this is a majority view, anyway ?). But, if women are saying
> "no to Linux", this will keep Windows as the dominant OS for some time
> to come.
>
> I think Linux is far superior to anything other OS I have tried and feel
> a bit frustrated that more people are not giving it a try.
>
> What are your thoughts ?
> --
> regards
>
> viv
>
>
> --
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>


Dave.
Web Developer
http://www.dave-wright.co.uk
http://www.freesoftwarelinks.co.uk
Friends and family web hosting for £30/year

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