What Is the Perception of Female and Male Software Professionals on Performance, Team Dynamics and Job Satisfaction? Insights from the Trenches

Research has shown that gender diversity correlates positively with innovation and productivity in many professional engineering and technology domains. Yet, software development teams are dominated by males. In this paper, we aim at understanding whether female software professionals, compared to male, have different perceptions on a) team performance and dynamics, b) their own personal performance, c) their immediate supervisors, and d) accomplishment, recognition, and opportunities. Understanding perceptions of different genders can help software professionals, their supervisors and those responsible for staff create and foster environments in which both females and males are comfortable and perform best. To achieve this aim, we conducted a survey targeted at individual software professionals in technical roles. We collected and analyzed data from 55 female and 69 male respondents. Our results show basic differences in demographics (e.g., males tend to be older, have more senior roles, and have longer tenure with their employer). While we did find some differences around perceptions of spirit of team work, productivity, sense of satisfaction and fairness of reviews from supervisors, in general, females and males do not seem to differ significantly in their perceptions. Based on the results from our survey and insights from the current literature, we discuss commonalities and differences between females and males, and explore potential implications for performance reviews, recognition, and career progression.