1. Someone Like Me:
How Does Peer Parity Influence
Participation of Women on Stack Overflow?
Denae Ford, Alisse Harkins, Chris Parnin@DenaeFord
North Carolina State University

2. Shared Experience
+Peers
Experience
-Peers
Social Facilitation
[Triplett, 1898]

3. Users find it easier to overcome
barriers when with peers
[Rudman, 2004] [Campbell, 2006] [Ford, 2016]

4. “They are just not even on the
same race track”
[Rudman, 2004] [Campbell, 2006] [Ford, 2016]

5. What is Peer Parity?
5
When an individual can identify
with at least one peer when
interacting in a community.

6. [Burnett, 2016]

7. ANSWER
COMMENT
PARITY THREAD
QUESTION
[Burnett, 2016]

8. Research Question
How does peer parity influence how
women post on Stack Overflow?
8

9. Data Extracted
9
5,987,284 Users + 32,209,817 Posts
Stack Exchange Archive
Identified Genders from First Name
363,133 W + 2,139,305 M + 102,189 U + 3,382,657 NA
[Vasilescu, 2012]http://bit.ly/SimpleGenderComputer

10. Measures of Engagement
Badges
Reputation Points
2nd Activity Time
2nd Activity Type
10

11. QUESTION
ANSWER
COMMENT
PARITY THREAD
Methodology
11
Select 1000
women who
asked a question
Check 1st
question for peer
parity
Analyze signals of
engagement
Check 2nd activity
for peer parity
Only 32% of identifiable women
asked a question

12. Parity in 1st Question
Parity Threads = 452
Non Parity Threads= 548
12

13. Findings

14. RQ: How does peer parity influence how women
post on Stack Overflow?
No statistical difference in reputation points
No statistical difference in number of badges
14

15. RQ: How does peer parity influence how women
post on Stack Overflow?
Statistically significant difference in type of 2nd activity
Q
A
N = 833
N = 167
p <0.05

16. RQ: How does peer parity influence how women
post on Stack Overflow?
Statistically significant difference in time until 2nd activity
16
p <0.05
330 Day Difference

17. RQ: How does peer parity influence how women
post on Stack Overflow?
No statistical difference in reputation points
No statistical difference in number of badges
Yes statistical difference in type of 2nd activity
Yes statistical difference in time until 2nd activity
Women who experience peer parity
re-engage sooner.
17

18. How does this translate to impact?
18

19. Showcasing Success
Demonstrate diverse top-rated users
19

20. Paired Guidance
Mentor-mentee pairing based on peer identification
20
Mellie
@Mellie
@Mellie
Olivia @Mellie

21. Revealing User Identity
Ability for users to bring all of themselves to the community
21
?

22. @DenaeFord
Summary
Women who receive answers from other women, a concept
known as peer parity, re-engage sooner.
Identity signals offer insight into mentorship strategies.
Future studies needed to validate peer parity and isolate
signals employed such as names, question scores, profile
images, and more.
22
Paper: http://bit.ly/PeerParity
Blog: http://bit.ly/PeerParityBlog

23. ++
23

24. Future Work
Support through eye tracking
What signals of a thread
influence parity?
24

25. ANSWER
COMMENT
PARITY THREAD
QUESTION
[Burnett, 2016]

26. RQ: How does peer parity influence how women
post on Stack Overflow?
Statistically significant difference in time until 2nd activity
26
p <0.05