March 20, 2001, 4:27 PM —
It's a man's world. That's common knowledge; it seems to be especially true in the land of IT, and even more so in the world of Linux and open source. The gender bar is so high that some women must feel as if Baud declared, "I love the smell of testosterone in the morning," as he set out to create career paths in these communities.
But hold on, pilgrim. There have always been those among us who refuse to accept a gender-specified place in the community. There's amazing Grace Hopper, for one, and Carly Fiorina, CEO at Hewlett-Packard, for another. And there's Bonnie Crater, CEO of OpenSales, as well.
I have to admit that when I first met Crater, I assumed that she was with OpenSales' public relations department. My daughter would not have been proud of me for making that assumption, and rightfully so. After all, when she achieved her dream of becoming a NASCAR driver and competed in that sport for five years, she did her part to remove a lot of gender-based role restrictions from my psyche.
