On 8 October 2006, the talk in the PHP Community channel (#phpc) on freenode turned to women programmers. More specifically, the conversation was on the number of women in the world of PHP. Knowing that there must be more than the two women in that channel at the time, Ligaya Turmelle and Elizabeth Naramore set out to find them.

So blog posts were made (Elizabeth’s Where are our PHP Sisters?, Lig’s All the women in the house - stand up), the community noticed (Zend’s Developer Zone), and a movement was born.

It may not be immediately apparent to all why a women’s group is needed. Keep in mind, they aren’t out to exclude men; their mission is to encourage and support women. And yes, men can be involved in the group to aid in that mission.

Have you ever felt isolated? Felt that you didn’t quite fit or that the group you were a part of really did “get” you? I’m sure you can imagine the women in software feeling that way - especially when you think about the numbers.

According to this Flosspols study from 2006 [pdf], about 1.5% of the Open Source community are female, and about 28% of the engineers in proprietary software are female.

1.5% - that’s pretty small! It’s a good thing we have people like Lig and Elizabeth, and everyone involved with phpWomen to help everyone achieve that sense of community.

How can you get involved? It’s simple. Just go to phpWomen.org and jump in. And at the next conference you attend - be sure to keep an eye out for those purple shirts.

Related Reading

Women in Open Source: some high profile projects/companies and the women behind them

Women in Open Source/Free Software bibliography: reports, presentations, press articles and more