By 2029, there will be 3.6 million computing jobs in the US, but there will only be enough college graduates with computing degrees to fill 24% of those jobs. For decades, the US has devoted resources to improving gender representation in the tech industry. However, these numbers do not increase proportionally. However, they remained stagnant, and the initiative failed.
Women make up 57% of the overall workforce. In comparison, women make up only 27% of the workforce in the tech industry. Of the 27% who join the tech industry, more than 50% are likely to quit before the age of 35, and 56% will quit by mid-career.
So, the question arises: Why does the tech industry have a retention problem? Why are women working in the tech industry quitting in such high volume? What factors contribute to the low retention of women in the tech industry, and what support do women need to stay and succeed?
I am an information science researcher studying gender and information technology, women in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – online communities and open source software. My team at the University of Tennessee is conducting research to address these questions. We found that retention plays a big role in the gender gap in the tech field and that online and physical spaces that support women can improve retention.
Women are leaving the tech industry
Research shows that women face many challenges in the tech industry. The gender pay gap is stark. Women do not get the same opportunities as men; for example, only 18% of chief information officers/chief technology officers are women. And women receive unfair treatment.
My research team focuses on the experiences of women in the technology industry with a particular focus on the treatment they receive in the workplace and the nature of support systems for successful women. We study the open-source software community because the open-source software community is an extreme example of gender injustice. Seventy percent of all software that supports technology infrastructure is open source, making open-source software integral to the future of the technology workforce. But women only make up 9.8% of people contributing to open-source software projects.
In search of answers to this tech industry’s retention problem, our research found that women’s negative experiences range from minor to severe harassment, sexism, discrimination and misogyny to outright death threats. His expertise was challenged, his contributions were not well received and his role diminished. They face constant harassment and deal with normal abuse, often hearing that “boys will be boys,” and they isolate themselves because they often lose to men.
The impact of these negative experiences shows evidence of multiple levels of harm. For example, the individual harm faced by women leads to the incidental harm of other women who are not encouraged to participate, causing more collective harm to the open-source software community in the form of fewer women participating. Overall, these negative experiences hurt the retention of women in open source software and the tech industry in general.
Cultural issues
The mainstream media often reports on the toxic “bro tech” culture of open-source software. In recent years, high-ranking leaders in open source software have come under fire for violent behavior.
Open-source software icon Linus Torvalds quit the Linux kernel after his toxic and abusive emails to other developers were highlighted in the media. His decision to resign comes amid questions about abusive behavior that has led to women not being able to work as Linux kernel programmers.
Another high-profile figure in this field, Richard Stallman, was forced to resign from the Free Software Foundation and MIT after a very successful career in open-source software due to his views on pedophilia, as well as numerous cases of sexual harassment of students and faculty at MIT over 30 years. . These types of public incidents of unprofessional behavior from tech industry leaders have a chilling effect on women’s participation and perpetuate toxic behavior.
A support system for women
In our research on support systems for women in technology, we observed and documented the value of online spaces focused on women with social, emotional, technical and networking support. Based on our results, the key to supporting women in open source software is an online space focused on female participants and accessible through open source software organizations’ websites. The space helps because it provides a sense of community for women working in open source software.
The space is primarily but not exclusively for women. Examples include 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 each other to navigate the toxicity of the tech industry and find ways to advocate for gender equality.
Additionally, we found that women thrive when supported by community guidelines, such as codes of conduct for online spaces, private events and professional organizations. We found that codes of conduct are often an advocacy tool for equal treatment of women in open-source software online communities. They are a tool for women and allies.
When women are supported by mentors and allies and able to network in the community, and when they see role models who look like they are succeeding in the tech community, they tend to quit. Retention issues can be addressed by addressing the gender gap in the tech industry with female-focused online and physical spaces, policies and practices to ensure equal treatment of women, and female mentors and role models.
is a professor of Information Science at the University of Tennessee
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