From: "David A. Black" Date: 2008-08-24T20:24:55+09:00 Subject: Re: A Mascot... Hi -- On Sun, 24 Aug 2008, David Masover wrote: > But if you'd rather talk about inclusiveness... Is Ruby particularly > under-represented, among programming languages? We're talking about a very > small niche of an already male-dominated field. It's not that Ruby is particularly male-dominated; it's that it isn't more equitable and integrated, as to sex, than other technical communities. It seemed to me, and others I think, at one point that the possibility existed of Ruby distinguishing itself through its inclusiveness. The hope was that Ruby could break the cycle. We have some extremely accomplished women in our midst, but I think they'd agree that, so far at least, we haven't broken the mold of the more or less typical technical community. My attitude toward Ruby has always been that our community has the power to do things right -- not to look to precedents, and not to use less-than-exemplary exemplars as a justification for what we do, but to do things right. In some respects I think we've done it. In the matter of breaking out of the boys'-club paradigm to any really impressive degree, we haven't. David -- Rails training from David A. Black and Ruby Power and Light: Intro to Ruby on Rails January 12-15 Fort Lauderdale, FL Advancing with Rails January 19-22 Fort Lauderdale, FL See http://www.rubypal.com for details and updates!