Que font les femmes?
Stéphane Couture (http://stephcouture.info)
Laboratoire de communication médiatisée par ordinateur (LabCMO):
http://cmo.uqam.ca/
L'objectif de cette rencontre était de discuter de la situation des femmes dans les communautés Wiki, en la comparant avec la situation qu'on retrouve actuellement dans les groupes de logiciel libre. Finalement, la rencontre a réuni 5 personnes; la plupart n'était pas des grands usagers de wiki, mais avaient de l'expérience avec les geeks. Le cas des Wikis n'a donc pas été abordé en profondeur.
Comme point de départ de la discussion, nous nous sommes basé sur la section genre du rapport "Free/Libre and Open Source Software: policy recommendation" (FLOSSPOL). Il s'agit d'un rapport de type anthropologique sur la place des femmes dans le logiciel libre: http://flosspols.org/deliverables.php
On y retrouve plusieurs conclusions intéressantes que je présente ici:
1. "Women are actively (if unconsciously) excluded rather than passively disinterested. The effect lies within F/LOSS cultural and social arrangements. The exclusion happens among people who often do not mean to appear, and who do not interpret their own actions, as hostile to women. The effect is an outcome of the importance given to the individual as the sole carrier of agency.
2. "F/LOSS communities actively perpetuate a ‘hacker’ ethic, which situates itself outside the ‘mainstream’ sociality, but equates women with that mainstream. Women are treated as either alien Other or (in online contexts) are assumed to be male and thus made invisible. Women are seen as innately more able to organise, communicate and negotiate among F/LOSS projects as well as with the outside world. Thereby they become carriers of sociality that is seen in a contrast to the 'technical' realm ascribed to men. Additionally F/LOSS women receive a high level of attention due to their gender which decreases their feeling of acceptance as community members as well as their willingness to further engage with the community."
3. "F/LOSS communities actively perpetuate a ‘hacker’ ethic, which situates itself outside the ‘mainstream’ sociality, but equates women with that mainstream. Women are treated as either alien Other or (in online contexts) are assumed to be male and thus made invisible. Women are seen as innately more able to organise, communicate and negotiate among F/LOSS projects as well as with the outside world. Thereby they become carriers of sociality that is seen in a contrast to the 'technical' realm ascribed to men. Additionally F/LOSS women receive a high level of attention due to their gender which decreases their feeling of acceptance as community members as well as their willingness to further engage with the community."
4. "F/LOSS communities actively perpetuate a ‘hacker’ ethic, which situates itself outside the ‘mainstream’ sociality, but equates women with that mainstream. Women are treated as either alien Other or (in online contexts) are assumed to be male and thus made invisible. Women are seen as innately more able to organise, communicate and negotiate among F/LOSS projects as well as with the outside world. Thereby they become carriers of sociality that is seen in a contrast to the 'technical' realm ascribed to men. Additionally F/LOSS women receive a high level of attention due to their gender which decreases their feeling of acceptance as community members as well as their willingness to further engage with the community."
5. "Inflammatory talk and aggressive posturing (‘flaming’) is accepted within many F/LOSS projects as a key means of developing reputation. Whereas more established F/LOSS members engage less in ‘flame wars’, people still establishing their reputation often use them as a platform to make themselves visible. This is often off-putting for newcomers and less experienced contributors who are not yet familiar with the community, its norms, or its real hierarchy. The effect is particularly pronounced in the case of women, who in most cases have a shorter history in computing and therefore less confidence in defending themselves on technical grounds. ‘Flaming’ thus exacerbates the confidence difficulties women tend to have as a result of lower levels of previous computing experiences."
6. "The reliance on long hours of intensive computing in writing successful code means that men, who in general assume that time outside of waged labour is ‘theirs’, are freer to participate than women, who normally still assume a disproportionate amount of domestic responsibilities. Female F/LOSS participants, however, seem to be able to allocate a disproportionate larger share of their leisure time for their F/LOSS activities. This gives an indication that women who are not able to spend as much time on voluntary activities have difficulties to integrate into the community."
Chacune des conclusions a suscité quelques réactions que je note ici:
a. Dans le monde des geeks, il y a une mentalité "débrouille-toi" qui peut paraître hostile aux femmes. La culture veut que les gens s'attaquent seul à un problème, sans poser de questions à moins que la recherche ait été menée jusqu'au bout. Dans ce cas là, une femme (ou n'importe qui finalement) se sentira moins bonne si elle pose des questions. La culture "geek" est vraiment une culture macho.
b. Les gens disaient que d'entrer dans le monde du logiciel libre (le monde des geeks) c'est de s'intégrer à une nouvelle culture.
c. Une participante mentionnait qu'il fallait parfois oublier d'être une femme pour pouvoir s'intégrer. Nier une partie de soi.
d. Par exemple, la documentation se fait parfois directement sur le wiki (s'il y en a) mais il n'y a pas de formes de collaboration plus "humaines" de personne à personne, qui pourraient faciliter une approche plus féminine.
e. Les filles se sentent mieux dans un environnement "créatif" tandis que les gars seraient plus "mental". Les gars s'intéressent au code mais laissent parfois de côté les potentiel créatif de l'interface des logiciels.
f. Est-ce qu'il y a des algorithmes "féminins" et des algorithmes "masculins"? Des bouts de code source "masculin" et des bouts de code source "féminin"? Quelqu'un (un gars) mentionnait que les codes sources étaient basés sur la logique pure et n'étaient pas "sexués"; ce seraient plutôt "l'ambiance" qui elle seraient sexuées. Une autre personne (une fille) n'était pas d'accord avec ça et disait que les codes pouvaient avoir une inscription de genre.
g. C'est plutôt le choix du problème à résoudre qui est sexué. Les gars vont préférer développer des logiciels de sysadmin, les filles auraient plutôt choisi des trucs de graphisme.