In this talk we discuss several issues related to gender diversity and inclusion in software engineering. Based on research 2015-2019.

1. Nicolaas Pietersz. Berchem (1620 - 1683). Harvest, KMSKB, Brussel
Gender, Diversity and Inclusion
and Software Engineering
Alexander Serebrenik
@aserebrenik

2. tenure
gender
tenure
diversity
gender
diversity
Individual Team Process
turnover
productivity
comm. smell:
black cloud
Product
code smell:
long method
@aserebrenik

3. tenure
gender
tenure
diversity
gender
diversity
Individual Team Process
turnover
productivity
comm. smell:
black cloud
Product
code smell:
long method
+
+
+
- +
@aserebrenik

4. Diversity in
Teams:
Bad or Good?

5. Bogdan Vasilescu, Daryl Posnett, Baishakhi Ray, Mark G. J. van den Brand, Alexander Serebrenik, Premkumar T. Devanbu,
Vladimir Filkov: Gender and Tenure Diversity in GitHub Teams. CHI 2015: 3789-3798

6. Bogdan Vasilescu, Daryl Posnett, Baishakhi Ray, Mark G. J. van den Brand, Alexander Serebrenik, Premkumar T. Devanbu,
Vladimir Filkov: Gender and Tenure Diversity in GitHub Teams. CHI 2015: 3789-3798

7. Catolino, Palomba, Tamburri, Serebrenik, Ferrucci. Gender Diversity and Women in Software Teams: How Do They Affect
Community Smells? ICSE SEIS, 2019, pp. 11-20
Palomba, Tamburri, Serebrenik, Zaidman, Arcelli Fontana, Oliveto. Beyond Technical Aspects: How Do Community Smells
Influence the Intensity of Code Smells? IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2018

8. How do we do it?

9. But… gender?

11. 11

12. 12

13. 2004
13

14. 0.7-0.9%
14

15. 0.7-0.9%
x 2
15

16. Bauer GR. Making sure everyone counts: considerations for inclusion, identification, and analysis of transgender and transsexual participants in health
surveys. In: Coen S, Banister E, editors. What a difference sex and gender make. Vancouver: Institute of Gender and Health, Canadian Institutes of Health
Research; 2012. pp. 59–67.
16

17. Bauer GR. Making sure everyone counts: considerations for inclusion, identification, and analysis of transgender and transsexual participants in health
surveys. In: Coen S, Banister E, editors. What a difference sex and gender make. Vancouver: Institute of Gender and Health, Canadian Institutes of Health
Research; 2012. pp. 59–67.
Bauer GR, Braimoh J, Scheim AI, Dharma C (2017) Transgender-inclusive measures of sex/gender for population surveys: Mixed-methods evaluation and
recommendations. PLoS ONE 12(5): e0178043.
0
25
50
75
100
Male Female Other
Transfeminine (assigned male at birth, identify as women/non-binary)
Transmasculine (assigned female at birth, identify as men/non-binary)
17

18. https://www.morgan-klaus.com/sigchi-gender-guidelines18

19. 10-20%
19

20. 20

21. Self-presentation
+
Artefacts created
Gender
21

23. However…
23

24. Krüger and
Hermann. Text.
62%-93%
Accuracy
Qiu et al.
Names
60%-84%
24
for different datasets for different kinds of names

25. Bogdan Vasilescu, Vladimir Filkov, Alexander Serebrenik:
Perceptions of Diversity on Git Hub: A User Survey. CHASE@ICSE 2015: 50-56
“I have used a fake GitHub handle (my normal GitHub
handle is my first name, which is a distinctly female name)
so that people would assume I was male”
Reliability
25

26. Krüger and Hermann. Text. 100%
Keyes. Face. 92.9-96.7%
Stefan Krüger, Ben Hermann. Can an Online Service Predict Gender? - On the State-of-the-Art in Gender Identification from
Texts. Gender Equality Workshop ICSE 2019
Os Keyes. The Misgendering Machines: Trans/HCI Implications of Automatic Gender Recognition. CSCW 2018
Santamaría and Mihaljević. Names.
Gender binary
26

27. 27

28. tenure
gender
tenure
diversity
gender
diversity
Individual Team Process
turnover
productivity
comm. smell:
black cloud
Product
code smell:
long method
+
+
+
- +
@aserebrenik
Gender Diversity
is Good

29. Women and men in Dutch IT (x 1000)
0
45
90
135
180
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017
Men Women
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017

31. https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/bug

35. https://github.com/chaoss/wg-diversity-inclusion/blob/master/di_metrics.md
Attraction
How well do we
extend a hand to
newcomers?
Retention
How long do different
people stay
engaged?

37. Qiu, Nolte, Brown, Serebrenik, Vasilescu. Going
Farther Together: The Impact of Social Capital on
Sustained Participation in Open Source. ICSE
2019, pp. 688-699

38. Qiu, Nolte, Brown, Serebrenik, Vasilescu. Going
Farther Together: The Impact of Social Capital on
Sustained Participation in Open Source. ICSE
2019, pp. 688-699

39. https://github.com/chaoss/wg-diversity-inclusion/blob/master/di_metrics.md
Attraction
How well do we
extend a hand to
newcomers?
Retention
How long do different
people stay
engaged?

40. Arthurian Romances, French (ca. 1275-1300). Beinecke MS 229, Yale University Library, USA.
Attraction
How well do we
extend a hand to
newcomers?
Retention
How long do different
people stay
engaged?
But…
attraction and retention
are not enough!

41. https://github.com/chaoss/wg-diversity-inclusion/blob/master/di_metrics.md
Inclusion
How well do we
enable these different
people to work
together?
Attraction
How well do we
extend a hand to
newcomers?
Retention
How long do different
people stay
engaged?

42. What is a Code of Conduct?
"Principles, values, standards, or rules of
behaviour that guide the decisions,
procedures and systems of an organization
in a way that (a) contributes to the welfare of
its key stakeholders, and (b) respects the
rights of all constituents affected by its
operations.”
International Federation of Accountants, 2007

43. GitHub hits
1
100
10000
Contributor Covenant
Open Code of Conduct
Python
Citizen
Ubuntu
Django
Geek Feminism
7 Common Codes of Conduct have
>500 hits across GitHub Projects
Parastou Tourani, Alexander Serebrenik, Bram Adams: Code of Conduct in Open Source Projects. 24th IEEE International
Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering, pp. 24-33, 2017

44. GitHub hits
0
5
10
15
20
Contributor Covenant
Rust
Twitter
Mozilla
Ubuntu
Django
Open Code of Conduct
Citizen
Geek Feminism
52 out of 150 most Watched GitHub
Projects have Code of Conduct

45. Parastou Tourani, Bram Adams, Alexander Serebrenik: Code of Conduct in Open Source Projects. SANER 2017

48. 48

49. Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
With special thanks to Denae Ford (NCSU)
49

50. Control of Identity Disclosure:
The desire to be seen as presented
Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
“Stack Overflow has constrained
expressions of identity. It’s up to
you what content you want to fill in.
GitHub for a while it was required
you expose your email address to
the rest of the world.”
Petruzalek: The obvious drawback of not being
passable is that you become an instant
target. So passability is not only an identity
goal, its also a mean of self-preservation
50

51. Economically Stable Work:
Distance technical merits from identity
Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
51

52. Economically Stable Work:
Distance technical merits from identity
Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
You cannot tell from my technical profiles that
I’m transgender. I don’t make a big deal that in
professional context. It’s just not relevant
Ross: “Technology has totally leveled the playing
field for someone like me. I can get on the internet
and watch tutorials. I have the drive to spend five
hours a day to teach myself a skill.”
52

53. Autonomy to Disengage or Reengage
Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
When [organizations] say [they] have safe space
and don’t take the steps to truly make the space
safe. You have now encouraged these people
to be vulnerable where their safety is
compromised. It’s a very dangerous trend.”
53

54. Control of Identity Disclosure:
The desire to be seen as presented
Economically Stable Work:
Distance technical merits from identity
Autonomy to Disengage or Reengage
Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
54

55. Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik. How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender
Developers Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering, 2019, pp. 9-12
We believe that remote work offers
a mechanism of control for identity
disclosure and empowerment of
software developers from any
marginalized communities.
55

56. With special thanks to Margaret Burnett (Oregon State University)
56

57. 57
With special thanks to Margaret Burnett (Oregon State University)

58. @aserebrenik 58

59. @aserebrenik 59

60. @aserebrenik 60

61. @aserebrenik 61