Female Wordpress Theme Gurus

To become a Wordpress theme contributor is among my greatest frustrations. While I’ve always wanted to be able to come up with and distribute my own wordpress themes, my inability and my lack of spare time to sit down and work on developing killer PHP/CSS skills, get in the way of that pursuit. I still want to think that it’s still not too late, hehe, hence I still find ways to learn, and be inspired. But well, the time is NOT yet now.

On another note, I’ve got some “is a woman” thing going on in this blog without really intentionally doing so (and just now I decided that it’s a good idea to continue doing more “is a woman” posts). First there’s “HP’s In-House SEO is a Woman” and just yesterday, “American Idol Winner 2007 is a Woman“. So just for trips, I googled the phrase “is a woman” and, lo and behold, came face to face with some interesting finds, write ups and sites that speak a lot of women concerns and thoughts that resemble mine. Interesting, really.

And then I landed on this blog post entitled “If Linux is a Woman..” and found this lengthy comment by Jennifer Hodgdon about her thoughts on being “a woman in a male-dominated field”. She said, and I quote:

“First, it’s always tough to be a woman in a male-dominated field, but after enough years of it, you get used to ignoring the sexism and locker-room atmosphere that often prevails. Younger women may have less experience doing that, and therefore may be put off by the tone of discussions on many tech mailing lists and forums; even I (not in the category of “younger”) have been known to sever all ties to particularly hostile development communities. “

And then she spoke about her experience being a Wordpress contributor:

“I should mention that I found the WordPress community to be much more welcoming and less hostile than others I have been a part of or considered joining, which is why I contribute my time to WordPress and not any of the other open-source software I use on a regular basis.

Another thought is that to contribute to a project like WordPress, you have to (a) have spare time, (b) have expertise (probably), and (c) want to spend your spare time doing something in your area of expertise. I think all three of these lower the number of women participating. For (b), clearly the number of women software developers is much lower than the number of men. For (a), even today, I think women tend to have more home responsibilities and less spare time. As for (c), perhaps most women developers are less likely than their male counterparts to want to do any extra development work after hours? Who knows… but these three factors together could account for the low representation women have among open-source projects.” (Emphases mine)

What’s evident is that, distributing wordpress themes, plugins, and other open-source stuff for Wordpress use is no joke. It takes time, mad skillz, and artistry. That’s why it amazes me that some Filipinas stand out in this particular area, and I happen to know some Filipina Wordpress Theme designers who are silently making a difference in the Wordpress Community by sprinkling some wptheme love around the world. (And, apparently, if you’ll scan through Ratified.Org, you’ll find out that these Filipina Wordpress Theme contributors are at the top of the rank, surpassing even the likes of Macalua.com and well, Yugatech. :P)

Here are some of the highly respected Filipina Wordpress Theme Designers (in no particular order):

Beng of Lukaret.Com | Download her WP themes HERE

Yuru of Cureless.Net | Download here WP themes HERE

Gail of Kutitots.Com | Download her WP themes HERE

And last but not the least, Joni of Taintedsong.Com (Yes, girl, you’re one of them now. Traitor!! Hehe. Aylabyu!) | Download her WP themes HERE

Hence my one grown-up Christmas wish: That a time would come when I’d cross over and be among these lovely lovely women of wordpress. Amen.