First Female Debian Project Leader (DPL) Affirms Low Profile and Inferior Status of Women in GAFAM
- EPO People Power - Part IV - Sexism, Chauvinism, and Lines of Cocaine at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
- Off-putting Terms or Behaviour That Keep Women Away From Areas of Technology (Not What IBM and GAFAM Tell Us)
- The Paradox of GAFAM: Saying You Protect Women, Appointing Abusers of Women to Run the Company
3 months ago Sruthi Chandran was elected as Debian Project Leader (DPL) for a period of 12 months. She was not exactly elected, just appointed (as nobody else ran for the role). Voting ended Friday 2026-04-17 23:59:59 UTC.
Her name has barely been visible since then; maybe she understands that DPLs can be discarded like hot trash at the whims of the monarchy, just like GNOME/IBM can toss out elected board members without an explanation, only threats and NDAs. IBM remains the master of GNOME. Nobody voted for this. IBM just "took over" in August 2025. Now it censors and bans critics, it also sacks women.
Chandran gave a talk one month ago [1, 2], but aside from that she has been very much invisible in the first 3 months of her tenure. That's how the masters like it: women keep quiet. We could make reference to cultures (caste, status of women etc.) but that would be interpreted as racist, irrespective of the reality of it. █