As we have already seen, there are many women volunteers in Joomla. Amazing women, who look after the Joomla project, and the community that surrounds it.

This month we have with us another amazing Joomla woman. Her name is Christiane Maier-Stadtherr.

Christiane is a member of several Joomla Teams such as the Bug Squad Team, the Joomla! Enhancement Development Team, the CMS Release Team, the CMS Maintenance Team, and the Frontend Template Working Group. Christiane is also a Website Admin at the Pizza Bugs and Fun (PBF) Organization Working Group and a PHP Programmer at the Workflow Working Group. Additionally, she is the Team Leader of the Joomla Accessibility and Usability Team where she is also a Contributor-Accessibility Developer. Finally, Christiane is a Board Member of the Production Team where she is the Assistant to the Department Coordinator.                      

I had the opportunity to interview Christiane who was kind enough to share her views and experience on technology with us. Our interesting discussion can be found below.

Christiane, please allow me to express my utmost appreciation for this interview. It is such a great honour to have you on my column and speak with you about your achievements in the field of technology. I would also like to thank you dearly for your overall offer to the Joomla project (as a volunteer) and the community that surrounds it. I think we are lucky to have you here with us.

Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself. What makes me different from most other women in this series is probably my age. But I don't want to be ‘Grandad, tell me about the war’ (punch cards and all that...) and will keep my comments short.

Christiane, from what I understand you have been a software engineer, an IT pioneer - before even the internet existed. How did this happen?

Yes, I was a pioneer in IT, it was pure coincidence.

I finished college in 1973. It was a college for ancient languages where I learnt Latin, ancient Greek and all the wonderful things about antique cultures. But I never had heard anything about computers or computer science and nobody in my environment did.

My family was poor, and I had to choose a solid profession to earn a living as soon as possible. So, I decided to study Math, and I had to choose a minor subject. There was a completely new branch "Computer science" and I decided to go for that. To make the story short: I earned my degree in computer science with medicine in 1979. 

I assume back then, not many women chose to become software engineers. What was the context like back then (was it easy, encouraging, did you face any obstacles)?

I didn't really decide to become a Software engineer, it just happened to me. Parents and teachers had no idea what I was doing, just were wondering. My courses were not what I first had expected, sometimes hard (electrical engineering) but interesting, so I changed from Math to Computer Science and Medicine. I attended lectures in aviation medicine and pathology, a real contrast to maths and statistics.  

Surely some profs were biased against women. Some said this out loud, others let me feel during exams that women were not really accepted. But there were also profs who supported me  - hopefully, because I was a good student and not because I was a girl. The real challenge was that I was deaf and did not understand the lessons. I had to learn from books only.

The number of women in IT was very small when I started studying - about 5% - and remained rather small for many years - about 15% in 2000) due to stereotypes: "nerds", and "geeks". But in recent years, women have been specifically promoted and their participation in this field of study is increasing. At my former university, it is currently around 22%.

Web development is only a very small part of computer science. PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS - are fields with a bad reputation among many students. It is a challenge for Joomla to change that. We must show that our software is up to date and not a playground.

What about your career before Joomla? You were a senior software engineer at a large organisation and a project manager for 29 years. What was this experience like?

This is a long story. My first boss was very demanding and supportive at the same time. He was a wonderful mentor and I am very grateful for everything he taught me. It was a great time for me. I started as a database specialist (hierarchical databases). I soon became the leader of a team of programmers. My boss wanted to communicate with me even though I am deaf so we invented and realised an international in-house email system for the company, a long time before the internet was born.

We made a few invention disclosures for communication systems during this project. One of them was the automatic responder for emails. These invention disclosures were no longer held by the company when Outlook came out, probably to avoid long and difficult legal issues, but it was a flattering experience.

From your experience as a woman in technology have you noticed particular stereotypes about women in tech, and in web development?

When I came to meetings I sometimes was asked when Mr. Maier-Stadtherr would arrive, things like that. In Google Summer of Code some students said “sir” even if they could see my photo, this made me smile. But I don’t remember a really offending situation.
There is one typical situation everywhere and also in Joomla. Women are not listened to and are easily ignored when they speak in a woman's way (reserved, quiet, often hesitant and relativising). They have to behave like a man to be heard and respected. 

From your experience as a woman in leadership. Are there differences between male and female leaders in the workplace? If yes, what are those differences? 

Showing anger and annoyance as a female leader is a mistake. When you bang the table, you are considered hysterical and female leaders know that. Apart from that, no, I did not find differences between men and women in leadership, less than differences between people in general. 

Research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI, 2022) in the UK revealed that there is a “chasm between female and male leaders” and “gender equality remains elusive.”  Moreover, male leaders demonstrate a high level of resistance to gender equality (both passive and active).  Do you think that women in leadership are still treated differently than men? 

The question is - treated by whom? By society?

By their team members or employees? I think not.

By upper management? Yes, definitely.

Women must behave like the career type of men then they are treated equally. If they act like women, they are not taken seriously. Speak up, make clear what you want, and praise yourself. In my generation, women did not learn that, but maybe the new generation has a chance.

What was it like to be a woman leader among men? 

I never reflected on that, just did my job. 

Do you think that there is room in the Joomla community for women to make a difference? Both as programmers/developers or leaders? 

Since I started with Joomla, more and more women have taken on different roles, both as members and as leaders. I think they have made a difference; the communication has become more friendly and respectful, but there is still room for improvement, especially on GitHub. GitHub is, per se, a kind of toxic environment with only very few women. 

Are women in Joomla allowed to make a difference? Does the community allow it?

Yes, as an example in the Joomla Accessibility Team, two women share the role of team leader.
This was new and a success and since then, we also have two Release Managers, not only one.  They can share the responsibility and the workload. 

How did you get involved in the Joomla project (and the community), what drew you here, and how did everything start? 

After nearly 30 years, I quit the company. I was a member of a non-profit organisation for disabled people and I intended to make life easier for disabled people, with websites and understandable content.

I discovered Joomla as a CMS with the first accessible template Beez and this was the very beginning of my new life as a Web Developer. I joined the German forum for Joomla and started building websites. 

With two members from the forum, I wrote a book about programming in Joomla version 2.5, kind of a “how I learned Joomla diary”. This was the beginning of my Joomla journey, but I was still lost in space (Joomla and open source) when I found a mentor in the community, Benjamin Trenkle. He helped me understand the world of open source and all the tools  - that was the beginning of my Joomla career.  

Would you like to give us some information about what you have done for Joomla and what you are currently doing? 

I have been a moderator in the German forum for more than a decade. I like supporting people with their problems, the forum team is great and we make the forum a safe place for newbies.

• The speaker in many German-speaking Joomla day events.
• Mentor in different Google Summer of Code projects.
• Team Leader of the accessibility and usability team and member of many Joomla teams.
• And working here and there, writing articles for our Community magazine and much more.

Of all the things you have done, what do/did you like the best?

Working for a better world for disabled people. I think that digital accessibility is very important, and I am sure that we in Joomla did a very good job there.

Is there anything else you would like to add/share?

I hope to see lots of young people - any gender - join Joomla and contribute!

Note from the author

Thank you Christiane for your contribution to Joomla. My opinion is that the Joomla Accessibility Team has done a great job, they added so many important features to the Joomla CMS to make sure it is accessible to people with disabilities. For anyone interested in taking a deeper look at some of the features, below is a list of Joomla Community Magazine articles (placed in chronological order) where you can read more about Joomla’s accessibility features. 

Joomla 4 and Accessibility: give back the web to everyone by Carlos Cámara

A Web Without Barriers by Brian Teeman

Explore the Core - Accessibility Add-ons in Joomla 4.1 March by Viviana Menzel and Christiane Maier-Stadtherr

Making a safe space for all in Joomla by Philip Walton

Accessibility, Joomla and Cookie Notices by Julian White

What's new in Joomla 5.1? by Yann Gomiero

Accessibility and typography in Joomla: choosing an accessible font by Serge Billon

Keep the Focus by Viviana Menzel

Finally, I would like to thank Christiane Maier-Stadtherr for sharing her thoughts, experience, and ideas in this article and for contributing to the Joomla project. Christiane the Joomla project is lucky to have you on board and your contribution to the Accessibility Team is deeply appreciated. Thank you very much for all you have done until now and thank you for what is yet to come. Your support means more than you know. You are an amazing Joomla woman!

And for those of you interested in the amazing Joomla women, thank you for supporting this column, and please stay tuned, as more interesting interviews are coming up.