Investigating the Barriers that Women Face in Software Development Teams Focusing on the Context of Proprietary Software Ecosystems

Abstract

Despite the growing discussion and concern about the topic, gender diversity in the Exact Sciences and Technology still requires attention. It has been observed by several authors that gender diversity is not present in a significant way in development teams, despite the potential positive effects. Moreover, with the growing demand for software that meet complex business needs, the concept of Software Ecosystems (SECO) has emerged and opens opportunities for external developers and strategies for fostering gender diversity. A Proprietary Software Ecosystem (PSECO) is a type of SECO that comprises a common technological platform with contributions protected by intellectual property. This work aims to investigate which barriers women face in software development teams focusing on the context of PSECO and what strategies can be used to increase inclusion based on a multivocal literature review. To do so, 29 studies were selected and 13 gender barriers were identified, with the 3 most cited barriers being: sexism, lack of peer parity, and imposter syndrome. Furthermore, it was observed that external PSECO actors can significantly interfere in the occurrences of gender barriers, in addition to the internal actors of the central organization (keystone).