The intersection of ageism and sexism can create a hostile environment for veteran software developers belonging to marginalized genders. In this study, we conducted 14 interviews to examine the experiences of people at this intersection, primarily women, in order to discover the strategies they employed in order to successfully remain in the field. We identified 283 codes, which fell into three main categories: Strategies, Experiences, and Perception. Several strategies we identified, such as (Deliberately) Not Trying to Look Younger, were not previously described in the software engineering literature. We found that, in some companies, older women developers are recognized as having particular value, further strengthening the known benefits of diversity in the workforce. Based on the experiences and strategies, we suggest organizations employing software developers to consider the benefits of hiring veteran women software developers. For example, companies can draw upon the life experiences of older women developers in order to better understand the needs of customers from a similar demographic. While we recognize that many of the strategies employed by our study participants are a response to systemic issues, we still consider that, in the short-term, there is benefit in describing these strategies for developers who are experiencing such issues today.
翻译:在这项研究中,我们进行了14次访谈,以研究在这一交叉点上人们的经验,主要是妇女的经验,以便发现他们为成功地留在实地而采用的战略。我们确定了283项守则,这分为三大类:战略、经验和观念。我们确定了若干战略,例如(有意地)不试图看《Younger》,这些战略以前在软件工程文献中没有描述过。我们发现,在一些公司中,老年妇女开发者被认为特别有价值,进一步加强了劳动力多样性的已知好处。根据经验和战略,我们建议使用软件开发者的组织考虑雇用女性软件开发者的好处。例如,公司可以借鉴老年妇女开发者的生活经验,以便更好地了解类似人口群中客户的需要。虽然我们认识到我们研究参与者采用的许多战略是对系统性问题的一种反应,但我们仍然认为,短期而言,为今天正在经历此类问题的开发者描述这些战略是有益的。