The ugly underbelly of coder culture

By now, it should surprise no one to hear that software development is a bit of a boys' club. We've all read editorials bemoaning the lack of women in tech.

The easy explanation is that programming appeals more to a male mind-set. But while it's easy, it's also cheap. Things aren't nearly so simple.

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Some say the problem is our education system. Schools and colleges should be doing more to encourage girls and young women to explore computing. Right now that's not happening. Overall enrollment in university computer science programs is up 10 percent from last year, but enrollment among women is down.

Others say companies should provide the encouragement. Some companies already are; Etsy, for example, is offering $50,000 in grants to send women to its Hacker School training program in New York City this summer.

That's admirable, but it falls short of addressing the real problem, which is that software development isn't just failing to attract women. It's actively pushing them away. Worse, they're not the only ones.

No girls allowed

There are women who have a genuine passion for programming to rival any man. But even if they manage to get hired over their male counterparts, they often find themselves in hostile, male-dominated work environments.

"As the woman, I've been the only person in the group asked to put together a potluck," writes Katie Cunningham, a Python developer at Cox Media Group. "I've been the only one asked to take notes in a meeting, even if I'm the one who's presenting. I once had a boss who wanted to turn me into a personal assistant so badly, it ended up in a meeting with HR."

Just as harmful, she says, were the casual jokes and comments from her male coworkers. If she didn't shrug them off with a smile, she was told she had a bad attitude. Cunningham says the subtle sexism she encountered as a programmer was so discouraging that she once considered leaving the field for good. "I almost prefer outright sexism, because at least that you can point out," she writes.

These problems certainly aren't limited to programming. Women in all sorts of fields face similar discrimination. But the software development field's hostility toward women may be symptomatic of a broader malady.

No dads, either

Consider the perennial issue of age discrimination in tech. Programming jobs may favor men, but not all men.

As a rule, older workers in most professions have it a lot easier than women do. According to federal statistics, mature workers tend to earn higher salaries and they're the least likely to be unemployed.

That's the rule. I'm sure I don't need to tell you which field is the exception.

According to Professors Clair Brown and Greg Linden of the University of California at Berkeley, programming salaries follow the opposite pattern from those in most other careers. Pay rises for coders spike when they're in their 30s, plateau when they're in their 40s, and actually decline from there. Those numbers put the lie to the popular theory that older programmers don't get hired because companies can't afford their inflated salaries.

The other theory -- that mature programmers fail to keep their skills up to date -- doesn't hold water, either. According to this month's Tiobe Index, the most popular programming languages are Java, C, and C++. All three are mature languages with large, complex standard libraries. They take a long time to master.

Programmers with deep knowledge and extensive experience are simply more valuable than newbies, especially if you can pick them up on the cheap. So why don't they get hired?

Is this an industry or a fraternity?

Evidence suggests that the problem is cultural, and it's not just women and older workers who are being excluded. Take the case of Ryan Funduk, who has given up going to programming conferences and events. He fits the demographic of a successful developer in most respects, save one: He doesn't drink.

"Practically every single event, and a huge percentage of the online discussion about these events, revolves around binge drinking," Funduk writes. "The simple truth is all you can do is just opt out of going to these parties ... or put another way, you can opt to exclude yourself."

Put all the pieces together, and you're left with an impression of developers that's markedly different from the geeks and nerds they're made out to be in popular culture. On the contrary, developers harbor the same attitudes and engage in the same behaviors you see whenever a subculture is overwhelmingly dominated by young males. They've even coined a clever name for programmers who think and behave like fraternity pledges: "brogrammers."

But saying "boys will be boys" simply isn't good enough. Developers pride themselves on their skill and intelligence. They like to think of their culture as a meritocracy, where the very best developers naturally rise to the top. But as long as the industry tends to exclude more than half of the potential workforce, that's nothing but pure arrogance. 

Today's software business seems to value youthful testosterone more than the stuff that actually matters, such as talent, skill, intelligence, knowledge, and experience. Until that changes, we're doing ourselves, our customers, and our industry a disservice.

This article, "The ugly underbelly of coder culture," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest news in programming at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.