For this episode of The New Stack Makers, Dr. Anita Sarma, Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Orgeon State University, joins TC Currie to talk about her recent research on how to increase gender inclusivity in OSS.  

Her recent research focuses on Problem Solving Facets in which men and women differ statistically.  She’s the author of  Squashing Inclusivity Bugs in Open Source Software: GenderMag methodology identifies gender bias in software tools to help designers eliminate it.

With Open Source Software (OSS) becoming more and more a requirement for job searchers,  it’s critical to become a part of this community.  For example, Sarma said, one technologist told her he’d rather see a GitHub profile than a CV any day of the week.

But currently, only about 10% of OSS contributors are women.  

We’re no longer talking about whether diversity is a good idea, Sarma said, but how we can make it happen. In her research, she has focused on five ways in which men and women statistically differ in how they problem solve.