TY - JOUR
T1 - How Gender-Biased Tools Shape Newcomer Experiences in OSS Projects
AU - Padala, Hema Susmita
AU - Mendez, Christopher
AU - Fronchetti, Felipe
AU - Steinmacher, Igor
AU - Steine-Hanson, Zoe
AU - Hilderbrand, Claudia
AU - Horvath, Amber
AU - Hill, Charles
AU - Simpson, Logan
AU - Burnett, Margaret
AU - Gerosa, Marco
AU - Sarma, Anita
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 1976-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Previous research has revealed that newcomer women are disproportionately affected by gender-biased barriers in open source software (OSS) projects. However, this research has focused mainly on social/cultural factors, neglecting the software tools and infrastructure. To shed light on how OSS tools and infrastructure might factor into OSS barriers to entry, we conducted two studies: (1) a field study with five teams of software professionals, who worked through five use cases to analyze the tools and infrastructure used in their OSS projects; and (2) a diary study with 22 newcomers (9 women and 13 men) to investigate whether the barriers matched the ones identified by the software professionals. The field study produced a bleak result: software professionals found gender biases in 73 percent of all the newcomer barriers they identified. Further, the diary study confirmed these results: Women newcomers encountered gender biases in 63 percent of barriers they faced. Fortunately, many kinds of barriers and biases revealed in these studies could potentially be ameliorated through changes to the OSS software environments and tools.
AB - Previous research has revealed that newcomer women are disproportionately affected by gender-biased barriers in open source software (OSS) projects. However, this research has focused mainly on social/cultural factors, neglecting the software tools and infrastructure. To shed light on how OSS tools and infrastructure might factor into OSS barriers to entry, we conducted two studies: (1) a field study with five teams of software professionals, who worked through five use cases to analyze the tools and infrastructure used in their OSS projects; and (2) a diary study with 22 newcomers (9 women and 13 men) to investigate whether the barriers matched the ones identified by the software professionals. The field study produced a bleak result: software professionals found gender biases in 73 percent of all the newcomer barriers they identified. Further, the diary study confirmed these results: Women newcomers encountered gender biases in 63 percent of barriers they faced. Fortunately, many kinds of barriers and biases revealed in these studies could potentially be ameliorated through changes to the OSS software environments and tools.
KW - Open source software (OSS)
KW - diversity
KW - gender
KW - newcomers
KW - software engineering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093092168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85093092168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TSE.2020.2984173
DO - 10.1109/TSE.2020.2984173
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85093092168
SN - 0098-5589
VL - 48
SP - 241
EP - 259
JO - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
JF - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
IS - 1
ER -