In reply to Dev.

I didn't really want to get too much into this discussion, but I did want to answer one of your questions.

Are women ‘discouraged’ from being part of the WP community (however one might define it?)

Yes, they are sometimes discouraged. Not always. It does happen though.

Any male-dominated field is going to be somewhat tough for women to get into simply because there's a bunch of men. While I can't speak from personal experience, I imagine it is intimidating for some women to get involved at all, regardless of how inviting or uninviting such a community is. I don't think anyone really has any doubts as to whether WordPress' has more men involved than women. It's largely the same across all tech fields. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. A large part of it is that men are probably more likely to enter these fields because these are the sort of fields that interest men more than they do women. I'm sure there are other things at play as well, but that's a discussion for another day. Whatever it is, it doesn't change the fact that the WordPress software brings in more men, which in and of itself can be discouraging.

There are also specific instances (some people have written blog posts on these) where women have been made to feel uncomfortable. Some of these instances are just "guys being guys". However, they have no place in a professional environment where they might make women feel uncomfortable or unwelcome.

With all that said, none of it matters in this specific case. Ultimately, what matters is honoring Kim. One of the things that *Kim* wanted to see was more women actively involved in the WordPress community.