Abstract
Context: The recent spike in the growth of online communities is a testament to the technological advancements of the 21st century. People with shared interests, problems, and solutions can now engage via online groups, including the software engineering community. There is evidence, however, to suggest females are often underrepresented in such online communities, and especially those that are technology related. This comes at a great loss to these communities, and for software engineering in particular. Females, like males, add much value to the field of software engineering. Objective: Limited evidence exists to quantify the value of males and females in the software engineering process or relevant communities. This insight could inform evidence-driven inclusiveness strategies. Accordingly, we sought to better understand gender differences in the Stack Overflow community in order to delineate the value of gender diversity in the field of software engineering. Method: This study used archival data from Stack Overflow over an 11-year period, comprising records from 9.5 million contributors. We employed quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine the role of gender in terms of contributors' orientation, attitudes, and knowledge sharing patterns. Results: The results indicate female contributors on Stack Overflow differed significantly from males in relation to their orientation, attitudes, and knowledge sharing patterns. We observe that female contributors tend to have a more cooperative orientation. Additionally, females expressed a more supportive and collective outlook and were more willing to share knowledge than their male counterparts. Conclusion: The software engineering community would benefit from gender tolerance and inclusiveness to promote a knowledge sharing culture. In this regard, gender diversity should be encouraged for the value it brings to Stack Overflow and the field of software engineering.