Gender HCI issues in end-user software engineering

Abstract

Despite the considerable HCI research relevant to end-user problem solving and end-user software engineering, researchers have not focused on potential gender HCI issues. In particular we focus on IT workers, a majority of whom do not have background in computer/information science. (In this document, we contrast these IT workers with females who are professional programmers, whom we term computer science females.) We believe that research on end-user problem-solving environments must delve into how these systems can support both genders for the following critical reasons: Women working in IT-dependent fields face a glass ceiling and ignorance of gender HCI issues is risky. If gender HCI issues in end-user software engineering continue to be neglected, software supporting the growing millions of end-user programmers may be making the same mistakes as did our academic ancestors: excluding women from full participation.