Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Rise of Women in Technology, Including in FOSS, and the Crucial Broader Picture

Women's pay



Summary: Hiring statistics suggest an improvement in gender equality, but a bigger story needs to be told

A new report from Dice got the attention of the Linux Foundation [1] because the FOSS world seems to be trying more than anyone to bring women to the community of developers [2]. "Women outnumber men in this year's tech hires." says one Microsoft-centric pundit in IDG [3]. A couple of days ago I had my wife join to help me run Tux Machines (it's a non-profit site, so I've removed all ads from it) and she is really getting deeper and deeper into FOSS, so this trend seems to make sense. She recently joined the company that I work for. As some people point out on the Web, hiring X just because s/he is X is never a good kind of hiring and it is possible that financial considerations play a role (women get paid less on average, even for the same job).



There is more to this story than the above report would suggest. As pointed out by Will Hill, in China for example, women get hired because it is easier to abuse and exploit them (or underpay them). To what degree this is applicable in the West remains to be determined. Similar arguments are being made to suggest that a $15 minimum wage [4] in the United States would only make things worse for the poor, not better, for all sorts of reasons we won't delve into right now. Business can always take their staff/hirings elsewhere [5]. Here in the UK, "permanent austerity" is being promoted while there are many millionaires and billionaires around (including our politicians [6]) and in Massachusetts there seems to be a run away from banks [7] because another crash is expected [8] (there is assurance of bailout at taxpayers' expense) and our government here in the UK is starting new programs to push every one of us (even savers) into huge personal debt [9] (let alone national debt).

What it all boils down to is a race to the bottom, debt economies (always borrowing from the future and forcing everyone to do so), or in a broader sense globalisation which only benefits corporations (making the rich even richer under the pretense it would lead to some 'trickle-down' effect). The next post will say more about it, addressing specifically the subject of TPP.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. Dice Reports Tech Jobs Increasingly Filled by Women
    Dice this week released new data showing that more than half of new tech jobs created in 2013 year-to-date have been filled by women.

    We're encouraged to see this trend and believe it will continue. The Linux Foundation is doing what it can to encourage women to contribute to and advance Linux. Our participation in this year's Outreach Program for Women resulted in a variety of important contributions to the Linux kernel by the interns. These interns were also invited to speak at LinuxCon North America and LinuxCon Europe about their experiences. I talked to a variety of attendees who enjoyed the interns' session and learned a lot about getting started in Linux.


  2. How did the Outreach Program for Women work out for the Linux kernel this year?
    The Linux Foundation became a sponsor for the FOSS Outreach Program for Women earlier this year, choosing seven interns to hack on the Linux kernel from June through September. And, the results are in: the intern group ranked among the largest contributors to Linux kernel 3.12.

    I asked Lisa Nguyen, one of the seven women interns, what it was like to work full time on the Linux kernel, with Linux developers, remotely for four months. In this interview, Lisa shares with me why she didn't tell anyone she was applying, what surprised her most about hacking on the kernel, and why she gets up in the morning hungry for more.






  3. Shocker: Women outnumber men in this year's tech hires




  4. The Time Has Come for $15 Minimum Wage
    In one of comedian Chris Rock's routines, he observes: "You know what that means when someone pays you a minimum wage? You know what your boss is trying to say? 'Hey, if I could pay you less, I would, but it’s against the law.'"




  5. Thom Hartmann on "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America—and What We Can Do to Stop It"




  6. Here's David Cameron Calling For Permanent Austerity In Front Of All Kinds Of Ridiculous Gold Things
    What everyone is talking about though is the photo of Cameron making this call for lower spending.

    Among the items featured in the photo:

    A huge gold throne. A gold speech stand. Several expensive looking glasses and chalices filled with wine. A random silver horse. A huge necklace on the lady sitting on the throne. Tuxes with white ties.


  7. A Massachusetts local currency gets international attention
    Dutch nonprofit provides $500,000 grant to start loan program for increasingly popular BerkShares








  8. Former Fed Official: QE Is 'Backdoor Wall Street Bailout'
    Andrew Huszar, who managed the beginning of the Federal Reserve's bond-buying program in 2009 and 2010, has two things to say.

    [...]

    Thanks to government subsidies, banks have seen their share prices as a whole triple since March 2009.


  9. Help to Buy mortgages more expensive than renting, say campaigners
    PricedOut says most first-time buyers would be better off renting and saving so they could access a better interest rate further down the line










Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 01/10/2023: Climate, Patents, Programming, and More
Links for the day
Apple and Microsoft Problems
half a dozen links
Malware in the Ubuntu Snap Store, Thanks to Canonical Bloatware Mindset
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Gemini Rising
There are 3523 capsules
Richard Stallman Gave a Talk Yesterday, Will Give Another Talk Today, and Will Give Two More Talks in Germany Later This Week
Those cover at least 2 different topics
Beware the Microsoft Sharks
We won't forgive and forget
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 30, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, September 30, 2023
Don't be Afraid of the Command Line, It Might Even be a Friend
There's a tendency to think that only graphical interfaces were made to simplify usage, and any declarative interface is by design raw, inherently unfit for usage
One Positive Note About GNU/Linux Coverage in 2023 (Less Microsoft)
GNU/Linux users do not want this, with very rare exceptions
Snaps Were Never Good at Security, But the Media Coverage is Just Appalling
The media should focus on culling Windows, not making a huge fuss over minor things wrongly attributed to "Linux"
Better Footage of Richard Stallman's Talk Last Week: “Freedom in computing, forty years after starting to really protect it”
Richard Stallman speaks about the cancer situation early in his speech
Links 30/09/2023: A Government Shutdown and More Blizzard Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2023: Bing Almost Offloaded Due to Failure/Losses, Nvidia Raided
Links for the day
A Lot of Technological 'Progress' Has Been Nothing But Buzzwords
Free software does not try to excite people people over nothing
Community is the Lifeblood of Freedom in the GNU/Linux World
Removing or undoing the "cancerd" (systemd) is feasible but increasingly difficult
Proprietary Software: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Proprietary software has an entirely different mindset, revolving around business models rather than science
Web Hostnames Down to Lowest Number in More Than 7 Years!
the number of hostnames is falling rapidly (they hide this by choosing logarithmic scale)
Over at Tux Machines...
2 days' worth
Richard Stallman Says He Will Probably Live Many More Years
"Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphona, so he will probably live many more years nonetheless. But he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19."
Quitting 'Clown Computing' and GAFAM is Only the Start
The Web and the Net at large became far too centralised
Stop Begging Companies That Don't Value Your Freedom to Stop Pushing You Around
That's not freedom
They Say Free Software is Like Communism When They, the Proprietary Software Giants, Constantly Pursue Government Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
At the moment Ukraine is at most risk due to its dependence on Microsoft (inside its infrastructure)
Social Control Media Has No Future, It Was Always Doomed to Fail (Also Promoted Based on Lies)
Recent events, including developments at Twitter, meant that they lost a lot of their audience and then, in turn, sponsors/advertisers
The forbidden topics
There are forbidden topics in the hacker community
They're Been Trying to 'Kill' Richard Stallman for Years (by Mentally Tormenting Him)
Malicious tongue wanted to do him what had been done to Julian Assange
We Temporarily Have Two Gemini Capsules
They're both authentic and secure, but they're not the same
Consumerism is Lying and Revisionism
We need to reject these liars and charlatans
Links 30/09/2023: Open VFS Framework, CrossOver 23.5, Dianne Feinstein Dies
Links for the day
Security Leftovers
GNU/Linux, Microsoft, and more
Microsoft Down on the World Wide Web, Shows Survey
down by a lot in this category
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 29, 2023
IRC logs for Friday, September 29, 2023
A Society That Fails Journalists Does Not Deserve Journalism
It's probably too later to save Julian Assange as a working publisher (he might never recover from the mental torture), but as a person and a father we can wish and work towards his release
Almost Nothing To Go With Your Morning's Cup Of Coffee
Newspaper? What newspaper?
Techrights Was Right About the Chaff Bots (They Failed to Live up to Their Promise)
Those who have been paying attention to news of substance rather than fashionable "tech trends" probably know that GNU/Linux grew a lot this year
Selling Out to Microsoft Makes You Dead Beef
If all goes as well as we've envisioned, Microsoft will get smaller and smaller
Curation and Preservation Work
The winter is coming soon and this means our anniversary is near
Mobile Phones Aren't Your Friend or a Gateway to Truly Social Life
Newer should not always seem more seductive, as novelty is by default questionable and debatable
Links 29/09/2023: Disinformation and Monopolies
Links for the day
iFixit Requests DMCA Exemption…To Figure Out How To Repair McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Jim Zemlin Thinks the World's Largest Software Company Has 200 Staff, Many of Whom Not Technical at All
biggest ego in the world
Microsoft GitHub Exposé — In the Alex Graveley Case, His Lawyer, Rick Cofer, Appears to Have Bribed the DA to Keep Graveley (and Others) Out of Prison
Is this how one gets out of prison? Hire the person who bribes the DA?
Richard Stallman's Public Talk in GNU's 40th Anniversary Ceremony
Out now
Links 29/09/2023: Linux Foundation Boasting, QLite FDW 2.4.0 Released
Links for the day
Red Hat Does Not Understand Community and It's Publicly Promoting Microsoft's Gartner
RedHat.com is basically lioning a firm that has long been attacking GNU/Linux in the private and public sectors at the behest of Microsoft
A 'Code of Conduct' Typically Promoted by Criminal Corporations to Protect Crimes From Scrutiny
We saw this in action last week
Objections to binutils CoC
LXO response to proposed Code of Conduct
Conde Nast (Reddit), Which Endlessly Defamed Richard Stallman and Had Paid Salaries to Microsoft-Connected Pedophiles, Says You Must Be Over 18 to See 'Stallman Was Right'
Does this get in the way of their Bill Gates-sponsored "Bill Gates says" programme/schedule?
Techrights Extends Wishes of Good Health to Richard M. Stallman
Richard Stallman has cancer
endsoftwarepatents.org Still Going, Some Good News From Canada
a blow to software patents in Canada
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 28, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, September 28, 2023
Links 28/09/2023: Openwashing and Patent Spam as 'News'
Links for the day