Why women are better coders than men

Why women are better at coding than men

Commenting on this recent research of women writing better-quality code, Liles argues that it still stems from gender discrimination and the pressure on women to prove themselves among the men.

“I know that I'm usually a little more nervous of submitting poor requests, so I'll spend a lot more time on it. I imagine [that] some of that percentage is made up of women who have spent more time on it – they're a little bit more nervous; they know that it has to be good. They're a bearer of the gender bias,” she says. “It's sort of survival of the fittest; we're probably as good as each other. It's just the gender biases themselves that are causing a result like that.”

This research should make employers realise they're missing out on potential talent, but Imafidon argues that making coding unidentifiable by gender in the workplace is an almost impossible task.

“We're really lucky that we're able to look at code and de-gender it, let's say in analysing it, but you're not able to do that in real life, in meetings, and when people are making big decisions,” she said. “It's one thing to remove gender from that codebase, but you can't remove gender from everything else. You have to go to the root of the problem, which is those assumptions and those biases. It's a proxy for a bigger issue, and there's a lot more that we need to do.” 

“Companies have two roles to play – the low number is for two reasons,” continued Imafidon. “The crux of it is, there's a problem attracting women and a diverse set of people to the industry. There's also a problem with retention. Companies need to be attractive, but they also need to be focused on how they retain the women they already have, and the kind of environments and workplaces that allow these women to thrive.”

Digital designer, developer and founder of The Human Project, Nick Hurley, agrees, stating that the lack of diversity is a self-perpetuating cycle. He argues that it only gets worse as the next generation of venture capitalists – “the people who capitalism has appointed as the gatekeepers to the direction of the human race”  – are created from a tiny privileged subset of society, sharing and perpetuating the same values as the generation of venture capitalists that went before.

“This cycle will only continue unless we take an active role in encouraging diversity,” he said. “We must provide more opportunities for women; we must actively listen and consider other people's points of view; and we must stand by their side, understanding that our position of authority was not afforded to us by meritocracy, but by privilege.”

Next: 'I don't do black women'