From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on dcvr.yhbt.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-ASN: AS31976 209.132.180.0/23 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.6 required=3.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI,RP_MATCHES_RCVD shortcircuit=no autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by dcvr.yhbt.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3170F2070D for ; Thu, 7 Jul 2016 12:50:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752354AbcGGMuI (ORCPT ); Thu, 7 Jul 2016 08:50:08 -0400 Received: from ns332406.ip-37-187-123.eu ([37.187.123.207]:60414 "EHLO glandium.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751592AbcGGMtt (ORCPT ); Thu, 7 Jul 2016 08:49:49 -0400 Received: from glandium by zenigata with local (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from ) id 1bL8kR-0005yr-8Q; Thu, 07 Jul 2016 21:49:43 +0900 Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2016 21:49:43 +0900 From: Mike Hommey To: Johannes Schindelin Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Junio C Hamano Subject: Re: [PATCH] am: counteract gender bias Message-ID: <20160707124943.GA22668@glandium.org> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-GPG-Fingerprint: 182E 161D 1130 B9FC CD7D B167 E42A A04F A6AA 8C72 User-Agent: Mutt/1.6.0 (2016-04-01) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Jul 07, 2016 at 01:47:19PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote: > Since d1c5f2a (Add git-am, applymbox replacement., 2005-10-07), i.e. for > almost 11 years already, we demonstrated our disrespect to the pioneers > of software development like Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper and Margaret > Hamilton, by pretending that each and every software developer is male > ("his_tree"). It appears almost as if we weren't fully aware that the > first professional software developers were all female. > > We know our field to have this unfortunate gender bias that has nothing > to do with qualification or biological reasons, and we are very sad > about the current gender imbalance of the Git developer community. > > Let's start changing that by using the variable name "her_tree" for an > equal number of years out of fairness, and change to the gender neutral > "their_tree" after that. You make it sound like the decision to use "his" was conscious and on purpose. I doubt that was the case, especially 11 years ago, when these issues weren't as publicized. Let's not attribute to malice on part of the people who wrote those lines what can be attributed to linguistics. Mike