Red Hat Appoints Robyn Bergeron First Female Fedora Project Leader

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."

s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[Tanktalus]

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.

Why is gender important?

[crath]

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 /.

I'm Glad That's Out of the Way

[walkerp1]

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.

Slow news day?

[ChunderDownunder]

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.

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[laffer1]

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.

Re:Why is gender important?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[rubycodez]

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.

Re:Why is gender important?

[Presto Vivace]

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.

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do we need more women in computing? Perhaps you mean we need more talented people?

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[Belial6]

The differences are not as wide or as deep as you would think. Your example of being visible to kids at an early age is simply wrong. Kids are terrible at identifying gender. They look at the most obvious and superficial characteristics. Put a man in a dress and you can confuse kids. Get that hairy chick to stop waxing her upper lip. Heck, just have a guy grow his hair out, and a lot of kids will get confused.

Even adults have a hard time telling the difference. Find out if YOU can tell the difference as easily as you think you can. http://www2.b3ta.com/femaleorshemale/ [b3ta.com]

We also don't need more women in programming. We just need people like you to stop suggesting that we hire based on gender.

Re:Why is gender important?

[Belial6]

About as big of news as having a red head as a project leader.

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[jjohnson]

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.

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[robthebloke]

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.....

Re:s/First Female/Robyn Bergeron as/

[Bogtha]

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.