Women In Geospatial+: Career stories of women in FOSS4G
Maria Antonia Brovelli, Cristina Vrinceanu, Laura Mugeha, Miriam Gonzalez, Rohini Swaminathan, Wilhelmina, Nathalie Sidibe, Danielle Groenen
The session highlights the different aspects related to equality and diversity in FOSS4G.
In the past years, women+ groups, including Women in Geospatial+, have amassed members from all over the globe, as well as from all backgrounds in the geospatial field. Through our work, we noticed increased interest in participation in the geospatial field, necessity for mentorship and being mentored, proactivity and a keen desire to learn and have access to skills and opportunities that were not being easily available to women so far. Through our work and the work of other sister organisations (e.g Geochicas, African Women in GIS, Ladies of Landsat, Sisters of SAR, GeoLatinas), we could determine that while the trend for equality and diversity in the field is a positive one, albeit slow, there is an imbalanced involvement in open source component of the geospatial field, with less women+ representatives overall.