Support systems help to keep female workers in the technical field
By 2029, there will be 3.6 million computer jobs in the US, but there will only be enough college graduates with computer degrees to fill 24% of those jobs. For decades, the US has devoted resources to improving gender representation in the tech industry. However, the numbers are not improving proportionately. Instead, they stagnate and initiatives fail.
Women make up 57% of the total workforce. By comparison, women make up just 27% of the tech workforce. Of the 27% who enter the technology industry, more than 50% are likely to quit before age 35, and 56% are likely to quit by mid-career.
So questions arise: why does the tech industry have a retention problem? Why are women employed in the tech industry resigning in such large numbers? What factors contribute to this low retention rate for women in tech, and what kind of support do women need to stay there and thrive?
I’m an Information Scientist studying Gender and Information Technology, Women in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – Online Communities and Open Source Software. My team at the University of Tennessee conducted research to answer these questions. We found that customer retention plays a large role in gender inequality in tech, and that online and physical spaces that support women can encourage customer retention.
Women are leaving the tech industry
Research shows that women in the technology industry face many challenges. The gender pay gap is serious. Women do not have the same opportunities as men; For example, only 18% of Chief Information Officers/Chief Technology Officers are women. And women are treated unfairly.
My research team focused on the experiences of women in tech with a particular focus on the treatment they receive in the workplace and the nature of the support systems for successful women. We studied open source software communities because open source software communities are an extreme example of gender inequality. Seventy percent of all software supporting the technology infrastructure is open source, making open source software an integral part of the future of the technical workforce. However, women make up only 9.8% of people contributing to open source software projects.
In seeking answers to this tech industry bonding problem, our research found that women’s negative experiences range from minor to severe harassment, sexism, discrimination, and misogyny to outright death threats. Their expertise is challenged, their contributions are not well received, and their role is belittled. They face constant harassment and have to deal with normalized abuse, often hear that “men stay boys” and have to isolate themselves because they are often clearly inferior to men.
The effects of these negative experiences point to multiple levels of harm. For example, the individual harm a woman faces deters other women from participating, leading to further collective harm to the open source software community in the form of reduced female participation. Overall, these negative experiences are detrimental to women’s engagement with open source software and the tech industry in general.
The culture problem
Mainstream media often reports on the toxic “tech bro” culture of open source software. In recent years, high-profile leaders in open source software have been exposed for their abusive behavior.
Open source software icon Linus Torvalds resigned from the Linux kernel after his toxic, abusive emails to other developers were highlighted in the media. His decision to resign was the result of questions about his abusive behavior in discouraging women from working as Linux kernel programmers.
Another outstanding figure in this field, Richard Stallman, after a highly successful career in open source software, was pushed out of the Free Software Foundation and the MIT resigned from faculty at MIT over the course of 30 years. These types of public incidents of unprofessional behavior by technology executives have a chilling effect on women’s participation and perpetuate toxic behavior.
support systems for women
In our research on the support systems for women in tech, we observed and documented the value of online spaces focused on women in the form of social, emotional, tech, and network support. Based on our findings, online spaces that focus on female participants and are easily accessible through the websites of open source software organizations are key to supporting women in open source software. The spaces help because they give a sense of community to women working with open source software.
These rooms are primarily, but not exclusively, for women. Examples are Fedora Women and Debian Women. When women face discrimination and misogyny, these spaces allow them to reach out to other women and seek social and emotional support. Women guide and mentor one another to navigate the toxicity of the tech industry and find ways to advocate for gender equality.
Additionally, we’ve found that women thrive when supported by community policies such as codes of conduct for online spaces, in-person events, and professional organizations. We have found that codes of conduct in open source software online communities often become advocacy tools for women’s equality. They serve as tools for women and allies alike.
When women are supported by mentors and allies and can connect in their communities, and when they see role models who appear to be succeeding in tech communities, they are less likely to quit. The attachment issue can be addressed by tackling the gender gaps in the tech industry with online and physical spaces focused on women, policies and practices to ensure equal treatment of women, and female mentors and role models.
is Professor of Information Science at the University of Tennessee
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