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The underrepresentation of women in the software
industry: Thoughts from career-changing women
Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi
Department of Future Technologies
University of Turku
Turku, Finland
smnyla@utu.fi
Abstract—Women are increasingly encouraged to change their
career to the software industry, partly to increase versatility
inside the industry and partly to overcome the labour shortage.
Although women show great interest towards the different
opportunities in the software industry and an increasing number
of women are participating in the trainings and recruitment
events—which usually are focused on recruiting more women
to the software industry—there are still signs that gender bias
is affecting the attitude climate in and about the industry. In
this paper, the respondents’ prejudices and attitudes towards
the industry are analysed. The data is from an open internet
survey collected in Finland during May–June 2018. The target
group of the questionnaire was composed of women who are
planning or have already made a career change to the software
industry. The study shows that although the industry is attracting
women, some of the respondents are suffering from low self-
esteem and impostor syndrome when talking about their software
engineering skills, as well as found the male-dominated industry
sometimes challenging.
Index Terms—Women in STEM, re-education, career change,
software industry, gender bias
I. INTRODUCTION
Industrial revolutions have always had their effect on society
as a whole. Currently, the birth of the next challenging
revolution, the fourth industrial revolution, is occurring [1],
[2]. Past industrial revolutions had their effect on the labour
market; it is expected that this next revolution is not going
to be an exception. More complex technologies require a
more highly skilled workforce with an even more diverse
background. Furthermore, especially in the software industry,
it has been discovered that innovative and skillful developers
can make a difference or can even be crucial for a company’s
success [3]. However, the question is where to find more
diverse workers to the industry.
To answer that question and at the same time fix the gender
bias in the industry, the European Union has raised a question
about female underrepresentation in the ICT (Information and
Communication Technology) sector. The European Union’s
aim is to find possible tools for solving the gender bias prob-
lem in the industry [4]. While it is not new that women worked
with computers in the history of computing, there has been,
in recent decades, a lack of women in all fields of STEM–
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [4]–[6].
This industrial revolution creates a situation where it is
possible to increase the share of women in the software
industry and ensure diverse teams for future innovations and
products. Furthermore, this is not only the topic that officers
and politicians are talking about; there has been a rise in
new kinds of software communities and events for women.
These communities and event series have been born both
from the hand of active citizens and from new strategies
employed by software companies to attract new employees to
their companies. Best known examples of this kind of global
women-oriented software communities are Girls Can Code,
Rails Girls, and Women in Technology.
This paper analyses the problems and obstacles women
face when they change career, as expressed by the following
research question:
RQ What kind of prejudices do women face when they
change their career, and what is the risk of falling
into a self-criticism mood?
To answer this question, 134 answers were collected via an
open internet questionnaire during the May–June 2018 period
from Finnish women who changed their career to the software
industry or were planning to do so.
The next section gives an overview of studies on women
working in the software industry. The third section presents
the research process, followed by the results. The final section
concludes the study with discussion, limitations, and future
work ideas.
II. BACKGRO UND
The underrepresentation of women in STEM industries
has been the focus of both researchers and governments for
decades. Only 17% [7] of the European Union countries
workforce in the ICT industry is composed of women. There
also exists a bias inside the ICT industry; women tend to work
in non-technical positions, and they tend to doubt their skills
more than their male colleagues [4]. In addition to this, women
do not frequently appear in managerial positions. For example,
in the USA only 11% of senior leadership or chief information
officer roles in tech companies were occupied by women [8].
Due to the current sentiment that the gender bias problem in
the STEM industries appears unchangeable, some researchers
have been advocating for a new approach to the issue [9].
Research has pointed to a lack of role models and limited
information about career opportunities in the software in-
dustry as having effects on the female population of said
industry [10]. Still, the lack of women in the industry is not
because their skills are lacking. Researchers have shown that
despite receiving high grades on STEM field tests, girls are not
applying to programs for college-level studies in STEM [9].
The peer support of other women has been proven to be
an important key element in increasing women’s odds to
succeed in business overall [11]. This peer support has also
been proven to play an important role for college students
pursuing degrees in STEM industries, as they realise that they
are underrepresented in their field of expertise [12]. Overall,
the lack of case examples and positive role models seem to
be influential factors; increasing the visibility of both these
factors could have a positive effect on attracting more women
to the software industry [10], [13].
It is important to observe that the variety of skills and back-
grounds matter. The rich variety of skills ensures the renewal
of the business and the emergence of new innovations [14],
[15]. If women had a greater impact on the innovations and
products made in the software business industry, the whole
industry would be more diverse [13], [16]. It has been also
stated that if products are made only from one perspective
during the development process, there is a danger that some
potential innovations are lost because of a lack of the diversity
in innovators [4].
III. MET HO D
The data used in this research was collected from the
beginning of May to the end of June 2018 with an open
internet questionnaire (i.e., the survey method [17]). The main
target group of the questionnaire was composed of women
who are either planning to change careers to the software
industry or have already done so. The Finnish-speaking Face-
book community Ompeluseura LevelUP Koodarit—which had
around 2,000 active members in May 2018—was selected as
the main target population. This social media community is
for Finnish-speaking women who are interested in software
and programming.
The responses to the open-ended questions were anal-
ysed with qualitative analysis [18]. The NVivo 12 qualitative
analysis software was used. The tool helps researchers to
annotate, organise, and summarise interview and survey data.
The analysis of open-ended questions was made by the author
without predefined themes. The aim of the method was to raise
new perspectives and themes and to see which themes were
shown to be more cross-cutting than others.
The questionnaire was designed in Finnish, and all of the
answers were given in Finnish. Before launching, the ques-
tionnaire was tested with women who were already working
in the field. Based on the feedback gathered from the test
respondents, the survey was improved and clarified.
The finalised questionnaire used both open-ended questions
and multiple-choice questions. The questionnaire has 15 ques-
tions ranging from background questions, career plans, path
to the software industry, reasons to change careers, greatest
challenges in the career change, the most interesting job
titles and programming languages to participation in women-
oriented software communities and things that inspired them
to make the career change. For the multiple-choice questions,
a “None of these” option was always included, and room was
left for the respondents to present their own answer if none
of the presented answers were adequate.
In total, there were 134 usable answers after removing
unfinished responses. The open-ended and multiple-choice
questions presented in this paper were not mandatory; as a
result, not all of the respondents answered them. This has
been taken into account when analysing and reporting the
results. For future research, 47 women provided their contact
information.
IV. RES U LTS
Based on background questions, 37 respondents were re-
ceiving a software professional education at varying levels,
and 61 respondents were already working int he field. The
average age of the respondents was 35 years old, and a typical
respondent had a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a non-
technical major. From those respondents who had already
made their career change to the software industry, a few
confirmed that they were planning to make a career change
to a more technical position.
For the 10 open-ended questions used in the survey, there
were a total of 603 answers. Five of these questions were
follow-up ones after multiple-choice questions, and five were
open-ended questions without preceding questions. There were
some cross-cutting topics that occurred throughout the an-
swers despite the original question. Based on the thematic
analysis, those topics were classified as education, women-
oriented software communities, and attitudes. This research
dives deeper into the answers regarding attitudes toward the
software industry. The observed phenomena are divided into
themes that are discussed in the following two subsections.
A. Impostor syndrome and low self-esteem
The most cross-cutting theme was the respondents own
doubts about their abilities and possibilities in the industry. In
most of these answers it was not clear whether these feelings
and attitudes were results of bad past experiences or just low
self-esteem. The researchers are of the impression that these
responses had more to do with self-doubt and uncertainty
about the respondents abilities and possibilities to succeed in
the industry.
Some of these responses presented signs of an impostor
syndrome. The following quotes illustrate this attitude:
“There are lots of lessons to be learned, and one
also has to cope with the feeling of low self-esteem.
Because of this, even though I am already working
in the industry, I applied for higher education so I
could get the papers out and so I would feel equal
with my coworkers.”
“IT work descriptions are exceptionally cryptic
(including non-technical tasks). Women learn new
things and technology just as well as men and
are often very good at ‘out of the box’ thinking.
However, women tend to be more critical of their
own skills. While a man reads two keywords from
a job announcement, feels like a guru, and [begins]
looking for a place, a woman may wonder if she
only meets 8/10 of the requirements and leaves the
spot without applying.”
Those respondents who had not yet made a career change
to the software industry also doubted their possible career
paths and the possibilities of their career change. They were
mainly focusing on their own limitations to learn new things
or succeed in the career change:
“I found [myself] challenging whether I learn new
things as well and as quickly as others, how long
the enthusiasm and motivation will last, and how I
am, as a woman, [going to be] treated in a male-
dominated working community.”
“I’m still unsure about whether I possess enough
talent, energy, and time to implement the career
change and what path would be the best one to
pursue, although I’ve actually done some studying
by myself.”
The fear of age discrimination also occurred in the answers;
some women were more focused on the age topic than on
gender discrimination. The biggest respondent group for the
questionnaire was composed of women aged 30–39.
“I have applied for the 2-year conversion training
program. If I can get in, am I too old after gradu-
ation to work in the industry? Do companies prefer
to recruit 25-year-olds, or do they see the value in
someone almost in her forties with a more diverse
background and experience?”
“I’m fearing that perhaps attitudes toward my age
(39), high school software-engineering papers, and
my extensive work experience from another field are
adequately convincing employers of my qualifica-
tions.”
B. The gender bias
Attitudes towards the gender bias in the software industry
varied. The biggest group was composed of the respondents
who saw that though there is still a clear gender bias in the
industry, things are changing.
“In my point of view, the change has primarily
been seen on social media. The vast majority of
colleagues, partners, and customers are still men
(e.g., at my last job, the entire management team,
board, and sales were all men).”
“The situation has gone in a positive direction, but
as for real equality at all levels of organisations,
there is still a long way to go. Gender is also
reflected in wages in this industry.”
“While it has been very typical for men to choose a
technical field, there has been a change in attitudes
during the past ten years, although there is still
a sense from older generations that ‘women do
not understand anything about computers’; you just
have to bear those comments.”
The second largest group was composed of respondents who
saw that the industry is still clearly male-dominated. The re-
spondents in this group have either experienced discrimination
from male workers in the industry or have experienced the
male domination of the industry.
“The IT industry is still very male-dominated. As
a woman, you are still treated as though you just
cannot understand [the field]. Men talk to men and
ask for advice from men. Or is it just that it’s hard
to show your own underdevelopment to a woman?”
“I believe that there are still certain attitudes toward
women, and those make me insecure about the IT
industry. I know a lot of men who work in the
industry, and some of their attitudes [toward women]
are evident. Maybe something has changed, but
change has been probably really slow.”
“In some areas, there still exists a condescending
treatment, especially from older men. If I give an
answer to some question, soon after the man [I
responded to] asks a second opinion from a male
colleague for backup. Maybe in companies with only
young people the situation may be different.”
There was also a significant number of respondents who
neutrally experienced gender bias in the industry or wished
to make clear they have not experienced gender bias as a
problem. A few answers gave the impression that the re-
spondents did not wish to see more women in the industry
and that they were happy to work only in a male-dominated
environment. Though these comments were on the fringe of
responses overall, they were alarming given that they were
stated by women already working in the industry
“I’ve been in the fortunate position of not having
the biased negative aspects reflected in me. Most of
my colleagues have been men, but here sex has not
really played a big role. I was expecting to encounter
the negative features of the male field, but luckily I
haven’t come across them.”
“I know a lot of women working in the field. I know
that women are still a minority, but I do not see it as
a problem for myself in the field. Sure, I hope that
more women would train themselves toward more
technological tasks, as I have noticed myself being
pushed toward the ‘softer’ direction.”
“Male domination is ok, but some men and also
women have to improve their attitudes overall.”
V. DISCUSSION,LI M ITATI ON S ,AND FUTURE WORK
This paper examined the cross-cutting themes presented by
women career changers about the software industry and the
women’s perceptions of attitudes toward them in the industry.
The low self-esteem and so-called “impostor syndrome”
were seen as one significant cross-cutting theme across the
data. Some of the respondents realised that they were too
self-critical but still could not help but worry about their
possibilities, talents, and treatment in the industry. Future
research could study men who are in the same position to see
if they experience similar anxieties, as well as to determine
how common these concerns are overall.
This paper did not study the effect on women-oriented
software communities as an empowering source for career-
changing women. Women-oriented software communities
share information and give peer support for those women who
are tackling these kinds of self-esteem problems. However,
these communities are just one potential solution to the
problem. More can be done to mitigate the issues outlined
in this paper: increasing the openness of job descriptions,
communication more about career opportunities, and fostering
more diversity in small things, such as in pictures promot-
ing software companies and in advertisements for software-
engineering schools.
The question is what can be done to enrich the software
industry and lure more diverse people into the field. Pro-
gramming has already been introduced as a school subject in
Finnish primary schools; positive signs for growing interest
toward the STEM industry has been shown by kids. This
means that there is a great possibility in the future that the
Finnish software engineering industry will be more diverse.
However, right now there is a significant number of potential
career changers with an interesting background ready to switch
into the industry. At the same time, there is a large labour
shortage problem in the software industry for which there
seems to be no easy solution. Women could have an important
role in solving the labour shortage in the software industry, but
what would be the most successful way to get women to the
industry?
The aim of this study was to spotlight the current dilemma
that although a great job has been done to make the software
industry more attractive for women, there is still a lot of work
to be done. Women still feel insecure and unsafe to change
into the male-dominated industry. More efforts to bring about
new solutions to this matter are necessary. Nevertheless, more
women are entering the industry, creating a positive sign for
the industry themselves and acting as role models for future
generations.
The data for this study was collected in the summer of
2018, and the next phase of research is starting in the spring of
2019. The next phase will focus on three cross-cutting themes:
education, the role of women-oriented software communities,
and the requisite cooperation model for ensuring a more
successful career change to the software industry.
Given the limitations of this kind of research—performed as
an open online survey tackling such a sensitive topic—the data
are only being used to open a discussion about the situation
and to serve as background data for the next data collection
phase, a focus-group interview.
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