Names, glorious names

Some time back, I wrote:

We [on the LinuxChix lists] also had a long-standing problem articulating what it was that led to the extreme gender imbalance in Free Software development and many of its user communities… There was sexism in computing and in Free Software… probably? Some women had stories, some women didn’t.

Now we have our long list of incidents, but I want to highlight another list which I’m happier about, our list of women in FLOSS. Back in the olden days, say 1999 or 2000 or so, LinuxChix tried to make a similar list. The Wayback Machine tells us it got to ten names, and I recall a significant amount of head scratching going into that. Now we have a list of women that is no doubt badly incomplete, probably uncompletable, but nevertheless something like ten times the length.

Today, instead of scratching our heads about what women could possibly deliver a keynote presentation at a technical conference, we started listing women who have done so, and I suspect that list too is fated to remain drastically incomplete no matter how actively it is updated. This is an inexpressibly happy thing for me: too many women to name! Thank you geek feminist flowering of 2008/2009!

Are there recent sources of geek feminist inspiration the Internet has tossed your way? Any treasure troves of women doing things you hadn’t heard about before? (Recall, we define geekdom broadly here, there’s no need to limit yourself to tech.) Who are you a mad fan of right now?

19 thoughts on “Names, glorious names”

  3. Skud

    Right now I’m a mad fan of, oh, getting the hell off the Interwebs and taking a nice long vacation. But I did want to point out the list of tech companies founded by women, any of whom would probably make great speakers for tech conferences. The list’s a little sparse, though, so if anyone happens to know any more to add to the list, please do!

  4. Liss

    Ye gods, that list brings back memories. Why did I disappear from geekery for so bloody long?

  5. Cesy

    Well, I started contributing to FLOSS for the first time this year – first with Dreamwidth, then with AO3. That’s pretty cool to me, and seeing all the other women in the same situation.

    1. Yvi

      Yay for Dreamwidth in that respect. I can definitely imagine now to also become active in another FLOSS project in a few months or so.

    2. Liz Henry

      I’ve really been enjoying working with both OTW and Dreamwidth! I have to go back and fix some more bugs, it is very satisfying. But they are also just great people to hang out with.

    1. Leigh Honeywell

      Looks like someone’s already added her to the keynoters list; I also added her to the list of women tech founders. Now she just needs a bio :)

        1. Mary Post author

          I don’t see this: I will assume it was transient unless you let us know otherwise. Thanks for the info.

        2. Chris Ball

          It’s still doing the same thing, and now I’m using a different machine altogether, at work instead of at home. So that’s odd.

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