Women and Open Source Software Development

Abstract

The Open Source community seems to suffer from a lack of female developers. In this thesis I have looked at different initiatives to increase the female participation. According to other studies the percentage of female open software developers is about 1.5%. My analysis of some mailing lists for open source projects shows that this number seems to be accurate. Open source is no longer a marginalised part of the IT market, but has become a mainstream and common alternative. Broader participation will probably increase the quality of the software.