Gender and Participation in Open Source Software Development

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Open source software represents an important form of digital infrastructure as well as a pathway to technical careers for many developers, but women are drastically underrepresented in this setting. Although there is a good body of literature on open source participation, there is very little understanding of the participation trajectories and contribution experiences of women developers, and how they compare to those of men developers, in open source software projects. In this study, we conducted a set of interviews with 23 developers, 11 men and 12 women, who became core in an open source project in order to understand their joining and participation motivations. We identify differences in women and men’s motivations f r initial contributions and sustained involvement in a project. We also describe unique negative experiences faced by women contributors in this setting in each stage of participation. Our results have implications for diversifying participation in open source software and understanding open source as a pathway to technical careers.