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Women Get Pull Requests Accepted More (Except When You Know They're Women) (peerj.com)

Posted by yaelk on from the women-in-the-workplace dept.

An anonymous reader writes: In the largest study of gender bias [in programming] to date, researchers found that women tend to have their pull requests accepted at a higher rate than men, across a variety of programming languages. This, despite the finding that their pull requests are larger and less likely to serve an immediate project need. At the same time, when the gender of the women is identifiable (as opposed to hidden), their pull requests are accepted less often than men's.

2 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. Self-Selection? by Diss+Champ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is it possible that those women who don't feel it necessary to point out their gender in situations where gender doesn't matter tend to also be those more likely to communicate well?

    Is it possible that those women who make it a point to draw attention to their gender in situations where there is no reason to bring up gender at all, are also more likely to be less convincing regarding the usefulness of their work?

    1. Re:Self-Selection? by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Interesting point. Also worth asking is:

      Is it possible that those developers who don't feel it necessary to point out their favorite college sports team in situations where their favorite college sports team doesn't matter tend to also be those more likely to contribute worthwhile changes? Is it possible that those developers who make it a point to draw attention to their favorite college sports team in situations where there is no reason to bring up their favorite college sports team at all, are also more likely to be less convincing regarding the usefulness of their work?