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I thought this blog would be about how women being anonymous / not presenting as female (in order to avoid prejudice against them) means that it appears there are fewer women in the tech community then there actually are.

For the record I'm female.

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Certainly, it would stand to reason that anonymity would skirt much of the issue of bigotry of any kind, at least bigotry targeting other anonymous contributors. Maybe the tech community needs to simply stop being so self-conscious about its demographic makeup.

I had the same thought, specifically women who work in FOSS communities anonymously and do independent consulting not being counted as much as those at random tech firms.

I don't know, at least in a FOSS community, revealing yourself as a woman seems like a good way to get plenty of help, swift replies, and votes for positions of power. I've seen it before ("Jill for list moderator! She's the greatest!"), but of course that's also a good reason for a woman to remain anonymous--not everybody is cut out for the fawning adoration of 15-year-old GNOME coders.

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