NDC Sexist Presentation Shows Problem is Computing-Industry-Wide

I generally try to avoid schadenfreude, but I couldn't resist here, because I think it proves a point that the problem of sexism in the software industry isn't confined to the Free Software community.

With my colleague Karen Sandler I've talked on our Free as in Freedom audcast. a few different shows about problems of sexism in the Free Software community. I've long maintained and written in a blog post that the sexism problem is computer-industry-wide, not just in Free Software.

In catching up on the weeks' tech news this morning (I'm often too busy during the week to stay on top of things), I read a few stories about Microsoft's party presentation at the Norwegian Developers' Conference, and watched the video.

It's tempting to link this issue to Microsoft's proprietary nature. Fact is, I've seen sexist things happen as part of formal presentations at a dozen different Open Source and Free Software events over the last ten years. I link to all this not to single out Microsoft, but to point out the entire computing industry — not just the Free Software community — have serious problems of embedded sexism in our communities that needs active attention.