Dynamics of Gender Bias in Software Engineering

The field of software engineering is embedded in both engineering and computer science, and may embody gender biases endemic to both. This paper surveys software engineering’s origins and its long-running attention to engineering professionalism, profiling five leaders; it then examines the field’s recent attention to gender issues and gender bias. It next quantitatively analyzes women’s participation as research authors in the field’s leading International Conference of Software Engineering (1976-2010), finding a dozen years with statistically significant gender exclusion. Policy dimensions of research on gender bias in computing are suggested.