Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

My take is do what other women are doing. Form your own support group and organizations. Self interested groups are better equipped to understand the issues, priorities, etc. which affect a given community.

While big cos. might have programs to address women's issues, that's not stopping women from forming more effective support groups and organizations.

Let's look at an effective lobbying group, the NRA, how are they so effective? They are tenacious and they organize nd support each other --so while they do appeal to greater society and parties, that by itself isn't what's driven their success. It's the forming of community and having one focused issue.

Also as with other groups, tap names in other industries, entertainment, sports, politics, etc. those who are interested in advancing your issues. Tap companies with black founders or ones directly serving the community.

Agreed with this comment. We have the technology where creating an organization should be fairly trivial. From Facebook to LinkedIn to MeetUp to Twitter, there are endless places where one could find other similar-minded folks. Gaining exposure might not be easy, but it shouldn't be difficult enough to make it impossible. There is endless information and postmortems for similar organizations that should help figure out the best way to approach these issues.

I can't remember exactly if it was the GNOME Women Outreach program that was shut down recently, but I remember there being a lengthy author about the president of the organization's decision to step down and close the program (because no one else would step up to the chair, among other problems). The post went into some detail about where it succeeded and where it failed. Stuff like that could be very helpful if a new self-interest group decides to form.

> I can't remember exactly if it was the GNOME Women Outreach program that was shut down recently, but I remember there being a lengthy author about the president of the organization's decision to step down and close the program (because no one else would step up to the chair, among other problems).

That was the Ada Initiative; see http://blog.valerieaurora.org/2015/08/05/the-ada-initiative-... .

Outreachy is alive and well, and has grown to encompass many more projects beyond GNOME, including the Linux kernel, OpenStack, and others. The Software Freedom Conservancy runs it now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com