Advice and links for helping make Software Engineering more inclusive of women

[sqbr]

This question is on behalf of my husband Cam aka distantcam, since I thought you guys might be able to help.

The software engineering community has recently had a bunch of nasty sexism imbroglios with the same old "get harassed/belittled for being a woman, complain about harassment, get harassed/belittled for complaining" cycle seen in the geek community, atheism community etc.
See for example Stupid Question 107: Shhh… Harassment. Not a problem?.

There's currently a bunch of software engineers making noises about working together to fight against the entrenched sexism. Cam is very much on board with this, but thinks they should try and learn from other communities' experiences rather than reinventing the wheel. Also, engineers respond better to new ideas when you have links or other references to point them towards. I poked through my links but they're all focused on stuff like sexual harassment at cons rather than, say, women being ignored in professional settings.

My main advice for him as a male ally (based on my experiences as a white antiracist) is to try REALLY HARD to find female voices on the subject, and then use the microphone of male privilege to encourage all the other men to listen to those women.

So, what we're looking for:

• Female Software engineers, or other women in male dominated professional fields, talking about their experiences and offering advice on fighting sexism
  
• Explanations of why it's important to be actively inclusive not just "not really sexist"
  
• Explanations of why it's important to center the discussion around women and women's voices
  
• Ways for men to help in situations without being "white knights" or otherwise overbearing.
  
• Anything else relevant and useful
  

Cam is going to subscribe to the comments, but will probably not reply to many since he is not as chatty as me :)

Comments

[tree]

i think the ada initiative would probably be a good resource.

[sqbr]

Wow yes that is EXACTLY what we were looking for!

And I knew about it already and totally forgot, oops. Anyway, thanks!

[kaz]

Am on phone so can't check for you right now, but have you trie the blogs on scientopia.org? Tend to blog about STEM research (so male dominated professional setting) and I know some are by women tackling sexism - e.g. thusspakezuska. I will go through and dig up links when I can but it may be a while!

[sqbr]

I hadn't heard of them at all, so thanks!

[dogstar]

Asked a couple friends to signal boost :)

[sqbr]

Thanks!

[aris_tgd]

Have you read Skud's writing on the subject? infotropism.org is her blog. You'll have to dig into the archives a bit but she has links.

[sqbr]

I hadn't, thanks!

[aquaeri]

I assume he/you read Geek Feminism? The wiki is a great resource too.

[sqbr]

Yes, but thanks for the thought :)