Examining unequal gender distribution in software engineering
Murphy, Alex, Kelly, Ben, Bergmann, Kai, Khaletskyy, Kyrylo, O'Connor, RoryORCID: 0000-0001-9253-0313 and Clarke, PaulORCID: 0000-0002-4487-627X
(2019)
Examining unequal gender distribution in software engineering.
In: 26th European and Asian Conference on Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2019), 18-20 Sept 2019, Edinburgh, Scotland.
ISBN 978-3-030-28004-8
This paper investigates the biological, psychological and societal reasoning for the disparity of females in the software engineering industry and how
a more diverse workforce can have an advantage in this sector. Studies show
that diversity in a company positively correlates to its financial profits. Furthermore, a severe lack of women in software engineering causes companies to
limit themselves to smaller talent pools, decrease the creative outlook on fresh
ideas and resolution of problems. There are superficially inherent reasons why
computing appeals to men more than women, observations in multiple reports
suggest that men may have a small advantage when it comes to mathematical
and problem-solving skills. Additionally, it is elsewhere suggested that females
interests reside in other fields related to ‘people’, whereas males are generally
more interested in ‘things’. However, while societal factors and bias plays a
role in the discouragement of women from the software engineering industry,
studies have shown that countries with more gender-inegalitarian societies show
an increase in the number of women in software engineering and STEM. This
may imply that gender disparity in software engineering primarily emerges
from personal choice rather than any discrimination or stereotyping.
Walker, Alastair, O'Connor, Rory and Messnarz, Richard, (eds.)
Proceedings of the 26th European and Asian Conference on Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2019). Communications in Computer and Information Science
1060.
Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-28004-8