Breaking gender code: visibility, power, and gender in creative coding cultures

Thesis

This project is a radically multidisciplinary examination of how gender intervenes in programming culture. Through three studies, I level a feminist challenge to the meritocracy of technology. I show how gender norms prescribe individual capacity for action, perpetuating “natural” masculine ability. By reviewing existing scholarship, I show how academia has perpetuated the narrative of a gendered difference. I explore how computational studies have quantified success and attributed women's lack of representation to feminine behavior as opposed to categorical discrimination.

In Study I, I conduct a survey into the perceptions of gender stereotypes in sites that afford anonymity. Comparing Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan, I show that gender norms dictate perceptions of hostility and technical knowledge. The exploratory analysis finds male-dominated spaces are socially read as hostile, even for men. Study II examines gender on Stack Overflow. I combine computational approaches with a non-binary inference of gender to analyse how gendered identity dictates interaction. Using social network analysis, I find that even in anonymity communities are organised by gender. I also show that the inferred gender of a user can be predicted by how they are spoken to. I conclude that Stack Overflow obscures rampant sexism behind narratives of being hostile to new users. In Study III, I observe gender performance and boundary-making at hackathons. I participate in the coding competitions to the fullest extent, programming alongside my teammates for an intensive 24-hour period. Through the sharing of memes and ironic jokes, I show that gender is the mediator of legitimate technical knowledge. I delineate how masculinity is embodied in tech start-ups and geeks to define femininity as incompatible with computers. Overall, this feminist project conducts a social structural analysis to reveal that sexism is fundamental to technology culture.

Authors: Brooke, S

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: hacakthons; programming; sexism; computing; stack overflow; gender; technology; women; teachnology
• Subjects: Human-computer interaction; Equality; Gender; Technology; Sexism; Programming