Enhancing understanding and addressing gender bias in IT/SE job advertisements

Abstract

The majority of Information Technology (IT)/Software Engineering (SE) professionals are male. A potential reason for the low number of female IT/SE professionals might be that the roles and the way they are advertised are biased towards male candidates. The aim of this research is to collect information about the present state of practice of gender inclusiveness within IT/SE job advertisements and how, if needed, we might improve this. We conducted a survey of hiring managers and IT/SE professionals (who are employed in IT/SE roles). The survey collected their general views on gender bias within job advertisements. According to their opinions, job advertisements are often biased towards male candidates. Based on the review and suggestions from our participants we developed a set of recommendations to help hiring managers design more gender inclusive SE job advertisements. This will be a first step toward developing a gender balanced SE workforce.