GitHub donates private repositories to women learning open source software

You know this makes me sick. Time and time again, articles pop up here on HN talking about some organization trying to promote and encourage women in technology and the comments explode with privileged boys whining about about how "it's not fair"<p>You know what's not fair? A Teacher telling a 12 year old girl that she needs a backup plan because girls getting an engineering degree, well, that's hard. Getting one from MIT, girls just don't do that. With the very next breath telling the boy standing next to the girl that she (the teacher) knows he can get into MIT if he works hard.<p>I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of my little girl coming home crying because some idiot crushed her dream of an engineering degree from MIT because girls don't do that. I'm sick of the privileged idiots here, complaining that women are getting some kind of advantage because they get a free github account. I'm sick of cluelessness.<p>The barriers for women in the workplace are difficult enough, it's worse in tech. The sooner we accept that, and accept that some organizations really are try to make a difference, the better off we'll be. How many times have we read stories about women who are alienated by their peers because their interests align with something that isn't "girlie." Please!<p>I've fought hard to teach my girls that society's barriers are there to be knocked down, that they shouldn't get discouraged and that they can do what ever they want. 18 years later, I'm proud that my oldest has ignored the criticism, the "you can't do that, it's a man's job" BS and is on her way to the Coast Guard where she will train as a rescue swimmer (there's only 7 women rescue swimmers now). I'm proud that my youngest stood up to that teacher and told her: well, perhaps MIT isn't the place for her. After all, MIT engineers ask UIUC engineers for help of the real difficult problems, though MIT will make a fine backup plan.<p>My point is, boys, get over it. I'm sorry you didn't get something for free. Oh wait, you did. You got to be male, a much bigger advantage than a free private github repository.<p><i></i> Edit: Spelling/grammer

&#62; This reluctance has good reasons behind it: fear of being told they are bad programmers, fear of being publicly mocked or harassed, and even fear of losing job opportunities. All of these are greater risks for women on average than men.<p>[Citation needed]<p>Edit, to expand on the kneejerk reaction: I find it difficult to accept the premise that this is a female-only problem. I've been reluctant to post my code before as well, and I'm male. The sometimes ruthless mockery of code isn't confined to code written by females.

I'm actually pretty angry about this. A much better plan would have been to offer free private repositories to any not-for-profit entity. Offering exclusively to women seems, to me, discriminatory.<p>Edit: Reading the article more closely, I'm not as bothered as as I was. Technically, Github granted unlimited private repositories to the Ada organization, who (I suppose) delegates their use to its members. It's not as though you can go to github.com and say, "I'm a woman, give me free private repositories."

Or you know, use BitBucket that offers free private repositories for everyone and anyone.

IANAW, but this almost seems sexist in and of itself. Is Github shielding the delicate female programmers from the merciless wrath of internet trolls? I guess the assumption is that big strong male programmers don't need this kind of coddling.

I can't believe the whining comments here so far. GitHub can contribute to any organization it wants to.

The fact that they partnered with the destructive and notorious Ada Initiative is disappointing. They are little more than concern-trolls, and they are doing far more to hinder equality than promote it.<p>GitHub is full of great people and poor choices like this are incongruent.<p>PS: This isn't male privilege speaking - The Ada Initiative is disliked (for very good reason) by feminists of both genders.

I fully support GitHub's right to do whatever they want, but I can't help but find this slightly distasteful. This is affirmative action, which I disagree with in principle.

FWIW, it seems like this will not give you private repos under your own Github Account, but just a private repo under the Github "organization" for the Ada Initiative.

Private repository for learning open source software. Makes perfect sense.

For those crying sexism, go take a look at the amount of women in the business, now THAT's what sexism looks like.

I get five free private repos for being a university student (for as long as I'm a student) - I don't see why we can't just extend something like this to people who are learning how to program / use github, and not just women/students

I'm really starting to wonder if The Ada Initiative is making more enemies than progress. Are they trying to promote equality, or female privilege?

I'm a paying github user, and I love github but I can't believe github allowed this. Firstly they are not helping open source if the code is private and secondly it should be for everyone. We hear a lot of people women nowadays complain about inequality and shit, if they are honest they should know this is utterly wrong and should do something to change it, else it's a bit hypocritical. no?

All in all, I think (well, hope) this is a Good Thing. To the extent that (some?) women face different (or more severe) problems in getting started in programming and contributing to F/OSS projects, if this helps ease that process, then it's a win for the world.<p>Now, I can understand some of the reactions, from both men and women. On the one hand, I can see why guys might say "isn't this just a different form of sexism?" and I can see how even some women might be offended (the same kind of women who freak out if a man holds a door open for them, probably). But despite all that, this has a chance to get more people involved in, and contributing to, the F/OSS world. For that, I think we can accept a small measure of "reverse sexism", given the context, and I think the radfem types can like it or leave it, while their female peers are busy writing code.<p>Yeah, it would be nice to live in a world which is more or less totally gender-blind, but we're not there yet and this move may at least help level the playing field a little bit.

To those saying, "Why is this necessary? This isn't fair!", Well, here's your answer: <a href="http://xkcd.com/385/" rel="nofollow">http://xkcd.com/385/</a> (XKCD nailed it, as usual.)

IANAL, but this appears to be a breach of the Equality Act 2010. Are they offering this in the UK?

How do female programmers differ from male programmers? I find this offensive. There are better ways to help promote programming among women. Equal salaries for starters could be a real equaliser.

I've been answering emails along with other Ada Initiative folks all afternoon!! A lot of women all over the world are <i>very</i> happy and excited to get to try things out on github. The Systers list was so helpful in distributing the link to a diverse worldwide group of women in the field and students just starting out. I think this will have a very positive result and bring many more women into fully contributing to F/LOSS.<p>Since so many times, people in open source projects wonder what they can do to help, and given the incredibly positive response I've seen so far today from women who've read the blog post and who say it is going to help them, I'm feeling hopeful -- and proud to be part of TAI's efforts to contribute.<p>I love supporting anyone's learning, especially in free/open tech and culture, and spend a lot of my time trying to do exactly that. Some of that time, I make sure to focus on supporting other women. Taking the time to support other women is often something that has to be a deliberate act, because it is all too easy to just pay more attention to men, who expect and to some degree demand it, so, I have tried for many years to make that an essential part of my life.<p>Cheers, HN.

What about LGBTQ, what about transgendered? Does this only apply to cis-females?<p>So if this is a demographic Github wants to see an increase in, does this mean they don't care enough about others?

1st class gender discrimination. In fact, this would be illegal in many European countries.

Why not just create a github account under a nickname ?

Why?

I can give private repos, too. Now put me on HN first page!