d.i.y. feminist spaces

We’d like to build spaces without harassment, without having to worry about jerks, and more ambitiously, with active encouragement to explore. The culture we’re developing supports making, learning, and teaching, which is a goal we share with many other hackerspaces. Ours is starting with a few extra values; intersectional feminism, support for feminist activism and strong respect for personal boundaries. We’re trying to build structures that help us form strong social ties and share responsibility.

It’s very exciting. I know what you’re thinking. You want a feminist hackerspace full of creative, talented non-jerks near you!

“The Rise of Feminist Hackerspaces and How to Make Your Own” by Liz Henry @ MODEL VIEW CULTURE
— via aic

in gender and tech news: an anti-harassment policy

Following a great expose (“The Dark side of Open Source Conferences”) by Valerie Aurora on harassment and sexism in Open Source (technology that is horizontally integrated, anyone can collaborate on it, and its nuts and bolts are all transparent) conferences and communities, which has been making its rounds on feminist as well as tech sites, the blog Geek Feminism has posted a great conference anti-harassment policy template on their wiki. Aurora interviewed her female peers in the industry about the good and the bad of conferences, and compiled their answers, revealing a familiar “double-bind” insult women face in technology of being both sexualized as well as considered not as tech-savvy as their male peers […]

“Geek Feminism Has you Covered at Conferences” @ bitchmedia

ArtFem.TV

I just found out about this initiative and wanted to mention them in here for all who are interested.

ArtFem.TV is an online television programming presenting Art and Feminism. The aim of ArtFem.TV is to foster Women in the Arts, their art works and projects, to create an international online television screen for the creativity, images and voices of Women. ArtFem.TV is a non-profit artist run ITV and media art portal about Art and Feminism.

Enjoy!

date despre prezenta online a femeilor si barbatilor in ro.

un comunicat de presa din decembrie 2009 de la trafic.ro:

(PDF: comunicatul, “studii demografice barbati” si “studii demografice femei”)

Utilizatorii romani de Intrenet sunt impartiti in doua tabere – nu, nu este vorba de cei care folosesc Firefox sau Internet Explorer, ci de femei si barbati. Astfel, conform Studiilor demografice trafic.ro din noiembrie-decembrie, profilul utilizatorilor difera semnificativ in functie de sexe.

Desi femeile sunt mai educate: doar 5,76% cu 10 clase sau scoala profesionala, fata de un procent dublu la barbati – 10,13%; si 50,17% femei cu studii superioare si post-universitare, fata de numai 43,2% barbati cu aceeasi pregatire, reprezentantele sexului frumos sunt incadrate in munca pe pozitii de excutie si nu de management.

Astfel, 46,15% dintre femei declara ca sunt profesionisti angajati fara functie de conducere fata de doar 30,86% dintre barbati aflati in aceeasi situatie. Mai mult, procentul de actionari sau patroni barbati este dublu fata de femei: 13,32%, respectiv 7,5%. Ca un amanunt picant, un procent nesemnificativ dintre barbatii participanti la studiu declara ca se afla in concediul de ingrijire a copilului: 0,35%.

Cum era de asteptat in aceste conditii, femeile cu venituri ce depasesc 1000 de Euro sunt de doua ori mai putine fata de barbatii care castiga atat: 3,05% fata de 6,5%. Dintre acestia, 2.04% castiga peste 7000 Ron, comparativ cu doar 0,7% dintre femei cu acelasi venit. Totodata, numarul femeilor fara niciun fel de venit este sensibil mai mare fata de cel al barbatilor: 22,65%, respectiv 18,38%.

Pe internet, atentia reprezentantilor celor doua sexe se indreapta preponderent catre stiri, e-mail si social media, respectiv bloguri si forumuri. Diferente procentuale apar la comertul electronic si tranzactii financiare – 19,63% barbati fata de doar 10,96% femei, urmarit clipuri/ filmulete – 31,76% barbati, 22,05% femei, si jocuri online – 21,14% barbati, respectiv 15,66% femei. In ceea ce priveste categoria de site-uri accesate preponderent, deosebirile majore se remarca la site-urile auto: un procent de 41,11% dintre barbati le viziteaza, fata de numai 8,85% dintre femei si cele de comert electronic: 28,95 % barbati si de doua ori mai putine femei (14,67%).
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a new favorite blog!

Barnyard Chorus
– an excellent Singaporean feminist and generally progressive group blog whose whole concept and approach i really love; from their “About us”:

Barnyard Chorus are a bunch of very concerned livestock members of the public that have a lot to say about the running of the world by our human and feral counterparts. And although through our writing we may not strike you as cuddly cute, we are actually quite friendly and amenable to letting you pet us for a minute, in exchange for a nominal treat.
Send your offer to peasant barnyard engineer, Farmer Plant’alot–let us think about it before we have our people call your people

:)

it’s interesting that Singapore is currently working for legislation against marital rape, which is something we have only recently started to take seriously in Romania, as in many European states, actually – through the removal of the line in the penal code that absolved a rapist if he married the victim and the addition in the definition of aggravated rape of a line about “victims who are family members” – and which indeed is still missing in many countries (see also 2008 UNIFEM report, figure 5.3), and a problem including in the U.S., in spite of spousal rape being criminalized in all 50 states. anyway, i like the Barnyard Chorus because it’s very active(-ist) and current and informative, but also well written, thoughtful, diverse, and, yeah, funny.

women in tech: RailsConf 09 panel

RailsConf 09: “Women in Rails”
Desi McAdam (Hashrocket, Inc. and DevChix, Inc.) Sarah Mei (LookSmart) Lori Olson (Dragon Sharp Consulting)

A general question like “How do we get more women into technology?” isn’t actually useful for our community. Discussion usually devolves into nature vs. nurture, then affirmative action, and it all goes south from there. So in this session we get down to brass tacks: How specifically can we bring more female programmers into the Rails community? How can we get them to come to RailsConf? Why aren’t they here already? You’ll hear from the folks whose voices are often not heard when this question is asked: the women themselves who are already here.

via anna, imc-women list

[about Ruby on Rails]

[DevChix]

tech books for mother’s day

a woman’s interesting initiative, resulting in a different kind of mother’s day promotion:

Women in Tech Rock! Join our Mother’s Day Celebration: Give a Tech Book & Get 40% Off

Twitterer HilaryP is a developer, a technical evangelist, and the pregnant mommy of a toddler. And though she likes girly things like yoga and beauty products as much as the next gal she was also looking for a Mother’s Day discount that appealed to her geeky desires. Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media agreed.

via anna, imc-women list

one can only hope that one day “girly” (“womanly”?) will mean as much “technical”/”tech book loving” as “yoga-loving” and “beauty-product loving”… and this type of thing may certainly help! though let’s hope that we’ll work on what “manly” (“boyish”?) means in people’s imaginations (and what we see around us), too.

8 martie!

Feminisme
istorii, spatii libere, democratie participativa, justitie economica

___________________________________________________________
8 martie – Ziua Internaţională a Femeilor!

Spatiul h.arta
Str. Zugrav Nedelcu nr. 11, Timişoara
(intrarea din Splaiul Tudor Vladimirescu)
si spatiul public al orasului

Ziua de 8 martie are o istorie legata de luptele pentru egalitate sociala, o istorie a eforturilor şi sacrificiilor depuse de femei obisnuite pentru drepturi in campul muncii. Aceasta istorie a unei zile care sa celebreze femeile care muncesc (facand atat munca salariata cat si muncile casnice neplatite, atat munca productiva cat si munca reproductiva) este acoperita de identificarea zilei de 8 martie nu cu o zi a femeilor care militeaza pentru drepturile lor ci cu o zi a femeilor pasive, care sunt, prin menire si destin doar mame si consumatoare.

Va invitam sa sarbatorim ziua de 8 martie avandu-le in minte pe femeile care s-au opus si se opun inegalitatilor de multiple feluri, pe cele care prin atitudinile si actiunile lor au participat si participa la construirea unei realitati mai echitabile.

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