Women on the Rise

illustration by Sascia Däumichen

The demand for women programmers is on the rise because the software industry realized it has a long-standing brogrammer problem and remains economically stunted from a lack of gender and socio-economic diversity.

After decades of observing teams, I recognize that braggadocious brogrammer behavior, lock-step certainty, and baseless hubris, diminishes the opportunity to foster a learning team.

In my experience,

A diverse team raises the bar of social intelligence and civility.

Contrary to popular notion, few people want to get pummeled by a sophomoric pack of Nerf Gun Nincompoops for breaking the build or making a mistake.

Software is no longer produced by pre-historic rock quarry workers like Fred Flintstone.

"People unfamiliar with the nuts & bolts of software development imagine it's an engineering process, but it's a profoundly human activity."
― Alan Cooper

Diverse, learning teams are much more fun, and by extension, more productive than mono-cultural, humiliation-centric teams.


REFERENCES

• Breaking the Build is Not a Crime, by Tomasz Nurkiewicz, 5 February 2013;
• More Than A Pipeline Problem: In Search Of Diversity In Silicon Valley by Rachel Martin, NPR, 26 July 2015;
• Say No to Brogrammers, Bobtuse Bobservations, 26 May 2012;
• Social Intelligence, Wikipedia;
• The Learning Team, Bobtuse Bobservations, 27 April 2014;