At the Technology and Social Action workshop in Leeds I met Yuwei Lin (now based at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam). She has written an interesting paper on the topic of FLOSS and gender. You can download a copy
http://www.ylin.org/GenderAndFLOSS_GPLed.pdf and send her your comments! Here is the abstract:
The FLOSS development is responding to the ICT development in various ways. This essay describes and analyses challenges (societal and organisational) and advantages (e.g. new models for mobile and collaborative work online), particularly regarding gender issues, encountered in the recent FLOSS development. The focus of the essay is not only on the claims made by women in the existed FLOSS community about the tensions between male and female developers' interests and ways of doings, but also on the current obstacles against bringing more women, who are not technically competent, to participate in the FLOSS development. This paper concludes with suggestions on how to create rules and resources and the creation of a common FLOSS space for both genders.