Women and Software Engineering

My goal with this text is to provide some concepts and questions that can help the reader to reflect on and elevate the discussion about Women and Software Engineering by providing historical data and some reflection points for the future. Feminism constitutes both a theoretical perspective and a social movement aiming to diminish and ultimately eliminate gender-based inequality and oppression. Data feminism merges data science with feminist principles to examine and address biases and power dynamics in data and technology. Studies at the intersection between gender and software engineering cover gender representation, barriers, and experiences. The main questions I propose for future reflections in the community are: What are the benefits that women bring to software engineering? How does the career and the life of female software engineers unfold? How should software engineering research change so that feminist principles are incorporated? How can feminist knowledge and processes help to examine power structure in software engineering?