Ann Schlemmer, CEO at Percona, highlighted the importance of International Women’s Day as an opportunity to address the gender disparities in business and work towards achieving gender equality by 2030. Despite initiatives to support women-led businesses, the funding for female entrepreneurs in the technology sector remains low. In the U.S., female-led businesses only received 2% of venture capital funding in 2023, while in the U.K., female-founded businesses received 3.5% of equity investment in the first half of the same year.
Schlemmer emphasized the need to invest in women beyond just funding. The lack of representation in the open source community, which prides itself on being meritocratic, is a concerning issue. A report by the Linux Foundation in 2021 revealed that the majority of respondents in the open source community identified as men, with only 14% as women. While there has been an increase in women enrolling in computer science programs, the talent pool is diverse and inclusive. However, the challenge lies in actively promoting and supporting women’s involvement in the open source community.
Although women’s contributions are more likely to be accepted in open source communities, the overall volume of contributions from women remains significantly lower than that of men. This could be attributed to the argumentative nature of conversations around pull requests, which may discourage women who do not feel confident in their coding skills. Schlemmer emphasized the need to value contributions beyond just code committers, such as documentation, events, and collaboration, in order to create sustainable businesses committed to open source.
In order to foster a more inclusive environment in the technology industry, it is essential to actively reach out to women, non-binary, and third-gender individuals to encourage their involvement. Meritocracy alone is not enough to achieve true diversity and inclusion, as it can lead to biases and discrimination based on individual beliefs and thoughts. Schlemmer stressed the importance of valuing every contribution, whether it be in the form of code or other essential areas, to create a welcoming and accessible community for all.
In closing the gaps for those who want to contribute to the open source community and supporting entrepreneurs, investing in people and promoting diversity of thought is crucial for innovation and problem-solving. Schlemmer urged for a collective effort to make the process of getting involved in open source communities easier and more welcoming, ultimately benefiting the communities and fostering increased diversity and inclusion. The collaboration and support of all individuals are essential to succeeding as a whole in the technology industry.
