any girls/women in this forum ???

[MaximB]

hello !!!
I rearly see girls/women here at the forum
please tell us about yourselves and tell us why you have decided to go with ubuntu/linux ?

[bluenova]

Hi, Take a look here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=76

[Biltong (Dee)]

If you really want to know, vist Ubuntu Women. Men are welcome anytime
Regarding your request - a lot of women prefer the anonymity offered by the Forum and do not divulge their sex.
Lastly, most of us have taken the same road as you and found Linux / Ubuntu by choice.

[aysiu]

There are women, but they appear to make up only about 4% of the forum membership.

[-Phi-]

The way these forums are set up, there is no way to tell if someone is male or female unless they mention it. Personally I don't hide that I'm female, just it doesn't seem relevant in most posts. Starting every post with "Hi! I'm female and..." would be silly

Though I must admit, I am curious how many women are here. There is a lot of talk about how women should be encouraged in Linux and Ubuntu in specific, but is the % increasing? That poll is a bit old and only has 360 votes out of more than 100,000 members, so it's not really statistically significant.

And to more or less restate what Biltong (Dee) said, I suspect most women here chose Linux/Ubuntu for similar reasons guys do. Customisation, security, ease of use, free choice, a friend or community willing to answer questions...

- Phi

[aysiu]

Is there any reason to believe that the sample of 360 (which is .3% of the forum membership) is not representative of the larger group? It's certainly statistically significant, even though it's not accurate.

You can't imagine, for example, that women make up 50% of the membership here or even 30% after seeing even that small sampling. Every poll has a margin of error. Maybe that poll's margin of error could be as high as 5% or 10%, but it's certainly statistically significant.

If you can find a way to poll more than 360 forum members, good luck.

[RAV TUX]

There are women, but they appear to make up only about 4% of the forum membership.

Thanks for the link aysiu, I hadn't seen this poll before.

There will be a certain deviation.

For example: My wife uses Ubuntu but does not participate in the Ubuntuforums.

I wonder how many spouses/significant others are missed due to not low numbers of women using Ubuntu but low numbers not participating in the Ubuntuforums?

[aysiu]

True. The original question (any girls/women in this forum ???) seemed to be about forum membership and not necessarily use.

I think Ubuntu use would be a lot harder to track down, as people could certainly use Ubuntu and never register at the forums or even show up on IRC or the mailing list... especially with a slew of Ubuntu (paper) books on the horizon.

[fuscia]

i've been mistaken for female, on numerous occassions, if that's any help.

[-Phi-]

Is there any reason to believe that the sample of 360 (which is .3% of the forum membership) is not representative of the larger group? It's certainly statistically significant, even though it's not accurate.

You can't imagine, for example, that women make up 50% of the membership here or even 30% after seeing even that small sampling. Every poll has a margin of error. Maybe that poll's margin of error could be as high as 5% or 10%, but it's certainly statistically significant.

If you can find a way to poll more than 360 forum members, good luck.

You're right, my wording was bad. Statistically significant is not a word I should throw around lightly

The error on the poll could go either way, and may in fact over inflate the number of females on the board (if they happened to be more inclined than the average member to vote and make sure they're represented).

I don't think a thread poll would ever give an accurate view of members here. At most it might give a view of the members that actively visit the Cafe (vs. members that just use the forum for technical help).

More widespread might be a gender option in profiles, but I hardly think that's worth implementing.

- Phi