Unconscious biases

Matthew Garrett’s recent very good response to Eric Raymond’s recent post opposing inclusiveness efforts in free software reminded me of something I’ve been noticing more and more often: a very substantial proportion of the female developers I encounter working on the kernel are from non-European cultures where I (and I expect most people from western cultures) lack familiarity with the gender associations of all but the most common and familiar names. This could be happening for a lot of reasons – it could be better entry paths to kernel development in those cultures (though my experience visiting companies in the relevant countries makes me question that), it could be that the sample sizes are so regrettably small that this really is just anecdote but I worry that some of what’s going on is that the cultural differences are happening to mask and address some of the unconscious barriers that get thrown up.