From 2e63faa725de0cd8115817102b20d69a09ca2ba0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bob Mottram Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2018 15:47:17 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Update gender and ethnicity --- entries/Gender and Ethnicity.txt | 28 ++++++++++------------------ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) diff --git a/entries/Gender and Ethnicity.txt b/entries/Gender and Ethnicity.txt index 3410921..4e1c04f 100644 --- a/entries/Gender and Ethnicity.txt +++ b/entries/Gender and Ethnicity.txt @@ -1,21 +1,13 @@ Gender and Ethnicity -Hackerdom is still predominantly male. However, the percentage of women is -clearly higher than the low-single-digit range typical for technical -professions, and female hackers are generally respected and dealt with as -equals. In the U.S., hackerdom is predominantly Caucasian with strong -minorities of Jews (East Coast) and Orientals (West Coast). The Jewish -contingent has exerted a particularly pervasive cultural influence (see Food -, above, and note that several common jargon terms are obviously mutated -Yiddish). The ethnic distribution of hackers is understood by them to be a -function of which ethnic groups tend to seek and value education. Racial and -ethnic prejudice is notably uncommon and tends to be met with freezing -contempt. When asked, hackers often ascribe their culture's gender- and -color-blindness to a positive effect of text-only network channels, and this -is doubtless a powerful influence. Also, the ties many hackers have to AI -research and SF literature may have helped them to develop an idea of -personhood that is inclusive rather than exclusive after all, if one's -imagination readily grants full human rights to future AI programs, robots, -dolphins, and extraterrestrial aliens, mere color and gender can't seem very -important any more. +Currently (2018) about 25% women in commercial software development. +FOSS projects are more difficult to assess due to the common use of +pseudonyms, but the percentage is probably similar. Before 1970 +people writing software code were more like 50% women or above, and +this early change in gender composition has now been well documented. +The ethnicity of hackers varies depending upon where you are and +it tends to follow whatever is normative for the region. So if you're +in Europe or North America it's overwhelmingly Caucasian. In those +areas anyone non-Caucasian tends to be kept out of commercial +software development due to entrenched discrimination. \ No newline at end of file