We are here. We have always been here.

Should write in detail. But it's late on day 1 of LCA - so just putting up the background notes, and the slides for today's talk at the Haecksen miniconf.

Download the slides

Video

Slides

Notes
Title: We are here. We have always been here.
Duration: 20 mins

We are here.
We have always been here.
Our numbers ebb and flow, but our strength endures.
Why do we come and go?
We have always been here.

Feminism is an old power.

Rebecca West said
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I
only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments
that differentiate me from a doormat."

A personal potted history of feminism and female power.
An invitation to embrace feminism.


-------------------------------------------------
Random thinking...
breaking this into...
 history
 herstory
 mystory

history
general history of feminism... and women's liberation / women's rights - including some labour history - because women's struggles for equal pay are part of this...

herstory
some notable women of information revolutions - louisa dunkley (telegraphist)
and notable australian women of tech... kay thorne - worked with csirac
idea of women as users of technology - this being unrecognised compared to creators of technology...

Database developers / database administrators (gender fractals)

mystory
feminism for me / technology for me
ecofeminism / geek feminism
why I think this all matters
and why we're not really unicorns at all.


Are we really Unicorns?

Unicorn - mythical beast
Unicorn law - destined to speak about women in foss
Unicorn myth - There are women in open source

Construct that users don't count
documenters don't count
community managers don't count
project managers and HR people don't count

Even still  - there are women programmers, testers, architects... these women do exist. and they don't all need to stand up and shout about being women.

I went looking for Australian women type designers... and found lots of them.


Equal Pay

women telegraphists started to be employed in large numbers because they were cheaper - meaning telegrams could be sent more cheaply - spurring competition.

I 've wondered if the 'women computers' that were employed before electronic computers and calculaters were around - were also employed in large numbers because it was possible to get many smart women for less dollars than it was possible to get smart men.

And more women worked in the computing industry in the past, because they were employed by the large corps and orgs that could afford to buy computers...

whereas when computing became 'personal' women and girls were 'in general' less likely to own their own computers, or be given them by parents.

touching on ideas from 'outliers' 10,000 hours for mastery
and unlocking the clubhouse.

Are women programmers - paid the same as male programmers?
Or are cheap programmers found in India, China and the Phillippines?


and a last word... thanks to Jacinta Richardson for finding this great cartoon.