Edit Summary for the TLDR
People are asking for a summary due to the enormity of this thread of posts and comments.
In summary this post is to discuss the link of diminishing numbers of women in programming and the research that reveals this is due to women feeling isolated within such a male dominated field.
I do not speak for all women, but the subset of female programmers who (according to research) find it more difficult than their male counterparts participating in programming communities, whether in a learning, working or online community.
As a community do we want to alleviate this? if so:
Is there anything we can do as a community to alleviate this?
This is just a discussion. It has no purpose except to help bring some issues to light and stimulate discussion.
In part I was prompted to write this after seeing a horrible post on here where the OP used a housewife as a benchmark for stupidity. It had been there for a while. I was very upset and flagged it. The post was deleted.
This in turn prompted me to write this as a suggested question for moderator candidates.
This will probably not be well received, as we are all supposed to be treated with the same brush here and I'm telling you it doesn't work for some groups within our global society. Also, it feels like I'm breaking some unspoken law in the ever tightening coil of political correctness. And this post is focusing on WOMEN, and I feel qualified to speak as a woman, on the experience of being in such a male dominated area, as it is well documented that my feelings are common among my female peers2. I can not speak for all women, but I can speak for a majority.
I can supply as many references and sources that are required if these links do not stand up to scrutiny.
A quick Google search verifies the diminishing numbers of women in this field.
What many of the users on here do not realise how difficult it is being a woman in this field. Women, by and large are not as confident in their programming skills and do not always understand many of the nuances of such a male dominated culture.
Feeling isolated or ostracized is a common frustration among women in technology.
Now this is not the fault of SO, but is worth bearing in mind that this is many women's experiences before they ever land on this site.
Think of it this way. How would you talk to me or any other woman face to face? How would you like people to be addressing you mother, sister, wife or daughter? How we address people based on age and gender does vary. Try and visualise 3 or 4 men standing around talking to a woman. What happens as the discussion gets heated? What if everyone starts yelling. What if the men happen to be in agreement and the woman is outnumbered? Could the woman feel intimidated?
Just because it's online it does not prevent a woman from feeling the same way as if it was face to face. Particularly when people are prone to stalking people around the internet - and that is not specific to men, but it is to try and show how events and fears can be linked within an online interaction.
The fact is we have different ways of relating and different expectations of what is professionalism and what is not. This couple with the fact that online communication is difficult at the best of times, lacking the major cues of communications, intonation, body language and facial expressions.
As a woman I frequently feel intimidated when debating with men online. When I feel threatened, the way I have personally coped with it online is to become aggressive, much like a cat fluffs up its fur. As you can well see from my overreactions in the comments, I am in the wrong.
Now this is not the fault of SO, that's one person's defence mechanism to being vulnerable. One a site like this, we're putting ourselves on the line, to be placed on that spectrum of incompetent->skilled, ignorant->educated, simple-minded->intelligent.
Women are (usually) vulnerable physically in the real world to men. Just by sheer size, nothing bad. And much of our interactions with men (we don't know) is centered around maintaining physical safety. I understand men can be hurt by women, I am not saying women are better than men or that all men are dangerous. If a woman has to walk through a group of men on the street, she's tense. I am trying to convey the woman's psyche in a way that may be helpful to men interacting with women online in a site like this. The pressure is quite intense.
I stick with it, as I love SO and the knowledge is immense and it improves my programming skills. More importantly, as my skills improve (they are by no means brilliant), I want to show myself as a woman with growing experience on the most well-known programming site, and a site that also has a reputation for being rough and tumble for newcomer programmers. I want to do this to help other women.
Now, as mentioned, I am my own worst enemy in how I react in the online environment. When there is an even mix of men and women it is very different than when I am acutely aware of the lack of women, and am usually the only woman in all my sets of interactions on most days on SO. And I do become very defensive when I know there's a bunch of men and if I don't communicate well and then there's discussion, it quickly leads to me being very defensive. Is this your fault? No. Is it my fault, but I'm also doing my best, as it is really difficult. I'm making this appeal, so that the tiniest changes can be made to ease the way for women to come into the field and succeed.
Now to reiterate.. what does this have to do with SO? It's the single largest online programming resource, and it is beneficial as a programmer to be active on this site.
I am trying to express the experience in the hope that this may cause one person, or another and a ripple effect. Even though women are not often comfortable within this type of environment, but we can't give up. I'm hoping to see more high rep female users. Hoping to be one down the track.
Also this discussion encompasses a tolerance towards different groups needs. So many cultural differences and language barriers and by being mindful of this, maybe we can all make a difference with a kind word, and a bit more empathy.
So ideas?
What are the stats on female to male users on the site and within the varying rep brackets?
Do women feel the need to hide their gender on this site like I did?
- What are the facts?
- What can we do to improve this?
Edit
I was tempted to post an answer, but thought it would be better to elaborate on the question.
To address people who do not agree with the word diminishing. If you click on one of the links I provided or do a google search, it is a fact that the numbers of women in the field are diminishing.
To address the people who suggest I am asking to reinvent SO or criticising SO. Where have I done this?
I have asked people to be mindful and not once do I claim women to be the only human beings to have struggles in life. I am merely addressing the declining numbers of women in the field on the largest programming site in the world. Using my personal experience and the research which indicates why many women are leaving or their experience of learning and working in the field. As research suggests, my experience is typical of the norm.
This type of discussion can be applied to many sub groups of our greater community, I have chosen to discuss this particular subject. My choosing to discuss this does not in any way imply it is more important that other people's concerns.
It is a straw man argument to suggest I asked for positive discrimination, or to change SO, or have singled women out as the only people to struggle with any of the above issues. It is glib and serves only to side step the actual issue being addressed here.
There are a set of issues facing this subset of people.
Let's clarify or TLDR
1. FACT: This is a discussion, not an answerable question; I threw out questions to stimulate a discussion
2. FACT: Women are diminishing in this field
3. FACT: There is a significant pool of reasons for this addressed above
4. FACT: This is the largest global programming resource community
5. Statistics and norms are just that, this is not every woman's experience. I am using research to be a voice for a statistical significant portion of the population. This is not ALL women's experience
6. Let's discuss this
I have stated clearly I love SO and the fact I have posted here shows I am aware of how influential we can be as a community to make positive contributions globally. If this bring up other struggles/issues you feel are important, feel free to discuss these here also, but other struggles/issues do not lessen this struggle/issue. There are many intelligent thoughtful people here and I am delighted with the response.
There are many differences between genders, cultures, etc. We cannot reasonably expect everyone to be blended sheep, but we can have a reasonable expectation of what is acceptable community behaviour. But what defines that can also be subjective.
This post shows that the gender differences are not necessarily malicious or even intentional. The point is not to assign blame, but to see what can be done to improve things, for both women and men. Which means an effort on both parts.
This post provides some relevant statistics and discussion Why did the percentage of CS bachelor's degrees going to women peak in 1984?.
The developer surveys and this blog post raise relevant data and information to this topic.
