Red Hat Appoints Robyn Bergeron First Female Fedora Project Leader

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Red Hat Appoints Robyn Bergeron First Female Fedora Project Leader

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 7, 2012 @04:10AM from the cultural-barriers-be-damned dept.

darthcamaro writes "Red Hat is changing the leadership at the Fedora Project. Jared Smith is out after having been the Fedora Project Leader since June of 2010. In is Robyn Bergeron — who will be the first female leader of the open source project's history. Bergeron is well known in the community as she has most recently been the Fedora Program Manager."

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s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by Tanktalus · 2012-02-07 04:18 · Score: 4, Insightful

The more we focus on the gender of the applicant rather than their skill in doing the job, the more we encourage people to treat others different based on gender. And the misogynists will continue to blame "affirmative action" for their lack of progression in their jobs. Seriously. Congrats to Robyn. I assume she's the most qualified for the job, though I have no idea who she is so shouldn't (and don't) have an opinion on the matter. But to focus on her gender rather than her skills will only focus attention away from what she accomplishes and to her gender. That doesn't do her any justice, women in general any justice, or Fedora any justice.
1. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by noh8rz2 · 2012-02-07 04:22 · Score: 2
  
  I was going to make a joke about the Red Hat Society. But i realized i would be tearing down and marginalizing a woman for just being a woman. A agree with parent, I take on face value that she is the most qualified. I would ask all the lonely dudes on /. to consider this before interjecting thier jokes.
2. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by laffer1 · 2012-02-07 04:25 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You are completely correct. My wife is a computer programmer and she has to deal with this crap all the time. Yes, we need more women in computing but we also need people to get jobs based on their skill set. I've met a lot of female programmers that can hold their own. Gender should not matter.
  
  --
  MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
3. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by rubycodez · 2012-02-07 04:34 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  you are completely wrong. IT is 97% male. Famous Open Source project leadership is 99.9% male. It IS news, what other distro has woman leading? Answer me that question first, anyone who replies to me.
4. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by lambent · 2012-02-07 04:45 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Okay, I'll take the bait. How exactly does gender affect programming ability?
5. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by vadim_t · 2012-02-07 04:52 · Score: 2
  
  Explain the third paragraph, then. Photo for additional evidence.
  If women have something that inherently makes them less suitable for programming on average, why would somebody have them as the programmers of a military system, when the military (especially in those times) is heavily male dominated?
6. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by jjohnson · 2012-02-07 05:39 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  What you say is true
  No, it's not. When female participation in law, medicine, or business was near zero, the same tired stereotype existed of women being unable to work in those fields for whatever reason--too emotional, not logical enough, whatever.
  Now women exist in large and growing numbers in all three areas, as legal and social barriers to them were dropped (or, more often, shoved out of the way by women we now admire). The stereotype is viewed as a quaint bit of wrongheadedness.
  
  --
  Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
7. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by robthebloke · 2012-02-07 05:46 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  But "stereotypes" exist for a reason: they have a basis in reality.
  Welsh people shag sheep.
  Mexicans are lazy.
  French people wear garlic.
  Irish people are thick
  
  Clichés are based in reality, but stereotypes tend to be rooted in prejudice. FWIW, I used to teach C++ to fairly mixed classes (~40% female). I'm sorry to break it you, but women are just as good at men at programming. There is one big difference though. Men don't have to put up with absurd comments such as: "Oh sure. She's a very talented engineer who's probably more than capable of doing the job, but she is a women, and we all know that stereotypes are true right?". Do you not see the hypocrisy in your own post there? Women find the idea of working in the software industry extremely off putting, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why.....
8. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by AdamWill · 2012-02-07 06:12 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  It was rarely noted at the time, but Anne Nicolas was the head engineer (her job title changed a few times, but she was always in overall charge of all the engineers actually working on the distribution and hence arguably 'in charge' of the distro itself) at Mandriva for quite a while.
9. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by Bogtha · 2012-02-07 07:06 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Famous Open Source project leadership is 99.9% male. It IS news, what other distro has woman leading?
  
  Albinos are even rarer project leaders than women. If an albino happened to become project leader of a "famous" open source project, would you expect to see similar "Holy shit, an albino!" news stories with prominent mention of it in headlines? I don't think that would happen. Certainly in the comments, but not in the headline. This isn't just about how rare female project leaders are.
  
  --
  Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
10. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by Feyr · 2012-02-07 07:39 · Score: 2
  
  "And the answer here is that women generally make much better managers than men"
  that's another stereotype that's patently false
  i've had plenty of more than useless female manager
  i've also had really bad men manager
  most studies never account for actual skill level when they compare the two, or they have an agenda to propel.
  of course a good "female" manager is going to be better than a bad "male" one. this has nothing to do with gender and all to do with skill, experience and individual traits
  i wish all the best to robyn here though i've never heard of her. the only question that matter is "is she qualified for the job?" and the summary seem to imply that yes, she is
11. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by vadim_t · 2012-02-07 08:04 · Score: 2
  
  Why would it be an outlier? Why would the military consider women for that position if they thought they might be unsuitable in any manner? To appease the yet inexistent Women's liberation movement? Also it's not an outlier, search for photos of computers of the same era, and you find quite a lot of women.
  My guess is that it's much simpler. Designing the ENIAC was a man's job. Perhaps programming it was the unglamorous chore, a sort of maintenance task somewhat akin to sweeping the floor. Or maybe because they saw similarity with a switchboard operator.
  Later, programming gained prestige, so obviously men wanted those jobs and would have the advantage.
12. Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/ by jrumney · 2012-02-07 13:39 · Score: 2
  
  Albinos are extremely rare. Women are over 50% of the population. A lack of Albinos in leadership roles in open source projects is not in any way comparable to a lack of women in those roles.
Why is gender important? by crath · 2012-02-07 04:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

And what is the point of putting her gender in the headline? Are women generally less capable than men and so it's a miracle that she made it to project leader? I don't believe that is the case; so, why emphasise her gender? This is a non-story and shouldn't have made it to the front page of /.
1. Re:Why is gender important? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 04:29 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Are women generally less capable than men.
  No, but they are outnumbered 50:1 by men, so yeah, having a girl as a project leader *is* kinda big news.
2. Re:Why is gender important? by synapse7 · 2012-02-07 04:40 · Score: 2
  
  and besides, the glass ceiling is only 3 atoms thick now.
3. Re:Why is gender important? by Presto+Vivace · 2012-02-07 04:55 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Because it is news when a women breaks the gender barrier in IT. Just read this thread, or any thread on Slashdot, the hostility to women and belittling our achievements is an very ugly part of technology culture. Something wonderful just happened. Let's celebrate it.
4. Re:Why is gender important? by Belial6 · 2012-02-07 05:24 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  About as big of news as having a red head as a project leader.
I'm Glad That's Out of the Way by walkerp1 · 2012-02-07 04:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

So next time we don't have to wonder about the motivation of the first X to do Y when Y has no performance correlation to X.
And a ton of other jobs by vlm · 2012-02-07 04:23 · Score: 2

Bergeron is well known in the community as she has most recently been the Fedora Program Manager
And a ton of other simultaneous jobs listed at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Rbergero
From the outside, I've never heard anything bad about her. So, good luck!

--
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Slow news day? by ChunderDownunder · 2012-02-07 04:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

Agreed, I work in IT and have had several top level managers who are female. It's the 21stC and should be no surprise that a woman should have risen through the ranks of Red Hat.
In the name of science by SpaghettiPattern · 2012-02-07 04:24 · Score: 2

In the name of science! Let us capture this specimen, lock it up in a laboratory and conduct experiments on it!

Is it big news that the first female is appointed to any function at all? Emancipation has come a great way and nowadays female lead is business as usual. Admittedly there are a less females in IT but that's more to do with it being less appealing to women. Not because the male majority keeps them from career opportunities. There are enough examples of women doing more than fine. In fact, using this tone is rather patronizing and I wonder whether Ms. Bergeron really appreciates the attention on the sole base that she's a lady, doing lady's things.

--

I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
So, What Is SlashDot Trying To Say... by RobotRunAmok · 2012-02-07 04:33 · Score: 2

...that the Open Source industry is finally on the verge of catching up with the rest of the tech and software industry in matters of gender equality?
The whole headline is a perfect example of back-handed praise. It's got to be Editor-Trolling because even Timothy can't be that naive.
Info and picture from Fedora by Dareth · 2012-02-07 04:42 · Score: 2

http://fedoraproject.org/en/using/life/robynbergeron.html
Recovering sysadmin indeed.

--

I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Useless discussion by kiwimate · 2012-02-07 05:02 · Score: 2

1. I'd imagine that the news that a major distribution has a new project leader is what people should be discussing.
2. Yes, it is shameful that Slashdot felt they should emphasize this in the headline.
3. But, to be fair, it is mentioned in the linked article...

She will be the first (what took them so long?) female leader of Fedora

4. ...which isn't any better. ("What took them so long?" Maybe because they had a habit of picking whoever was best for the job regardless of other characteristics?)
5. Futile discussion. Everyone is now focused on the sexism. Way to go, Slashdot editors. And Slashdot readers. And whoever wrote that quote in the linked article.
Re:I'm outraged! by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-02-07 06:08 · Score: 3, Funny

Wake me up when there's a pentasomy X WOMAN in charge of the Fedora project.

XXXXX syndrome causes mental, growth, and motor retardation.
Sorry, the Windows Vista team beat us on this one.

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Re:First Post by Grishnakh · 2012-02-07 06:42 · Score: 2

Definitely not, unless she kicks out the stupid Gnome devs that work for Red Hat and makes KDE the premier DE on Fedora. "Linux on the desktop" is always going to be a pipe dream as long as Linux distros keep trying to push these idiotic touchscreen-esque garbage UIs like Unity and Gnome3 on everyone. No one in their right mind would abandon Windows or MacOS for these ridiculous UIs.
Cool, now we are all waiting for... by DerCed · 2012-02-07 07:28 · Score: 2

Cool, now we are all waiting for the first Black Female Linux Team Leader?