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The Changing Face of Software Development

Posted by Soulskill on from the strength-through-diversity dept.

CowboyRobot sends this excerpt from Dr. Dobb's: "Ten years of surveys show an influx of younger developers, more women, and personality profiles at odds with traditional stereotypes. Software development is an art and a science that is not attainable for just anyone. It takes a special type of person to write code. Developers are detail-oriented, very literal, and intelligent. Logic is paramount, and they share a passion for their craft that rises above the desire to make more money. They are also typically married, middle-aged, have children, and most likely a mortgage. In one of a series of surveys that we've performed every six months since 2001 (interviewing each time more than 1400 developers worldwide), we find the typical developer is a married, middle-aged male, who has two to three children. Males have dominated the profession for as long we've been tracking this; and during that time, they have accounted for anywhere from 84% to 94% of the workforce. The number of male developers is currently close to the low, at 86%, which might indicate more females are taking up programming."

10 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. 85% are male by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And the others put "Yes, please" in the box marked "Sex".

  2. In my Experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In my experience, 70% of female programmers sucks. Contrast this with the 30% of good male programmers.

    1. Re:In my Experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      The % that suck is observer-driven. I think that 90% suck because I'm in the 95th percentile. There are better developers that think 99% suck because they're observing from the 99.5 percentile. Since you think that only 30% of male programmers suck ...well there you go.

  3. Re:Females? by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Funny

    "females"

    I think the point is that not all developers are human (male or female).

    --
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  4. Re:Might Indicate More Females by rvw · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The number of male developers is currently close to the low, at 86%, which might indicate more females are taking up programming."

    Might indicate more females? Do we have a large number of non-gender or 3rd gender in the workforce taking up programming?

    I think cats are on the rise!

  5. The Natural Environment of the Software Developer by tomxor · · Score: 3, Funny

    We need a BBC Wildlife style study of the Software Developer narrated by David Attenborough so that we can start legitimately referring to the gender of this species as "male" and "female" accordingly.

  6. Re:Females? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Can we stop saying "females" when we mean "women". We're not Ferengi.

    Shit! There goes my hope of stopping the disgusting custom of the females wearing cloths!

  7. Re:Might Indicate More Females by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1, Funny

    I guess Dr. Dobb's is not a developer, because "software development is an art and a science that is not attainable for just anyone. It takes a special type of person to write code. Developers are detail-oriented, very literal, and intelligent. Logic is paramount, and they share a passion for their craft that rises above the desire to make more money."

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  8. Re:Very literal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I really have to take issue with the "very literal" comment.

    I think you're taking the statement too literally.

  9. The other 14% are Unix programmers by CQDX · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Unix%20Programmer