[HackerRank] 2018 Women in Tech Report

Research conducted by HackerRank shows the gender gap in coding is shrinking (slowly, but surely). Its study surveyed more than 14,000 professional software developers, almost 2,000 of which were women. Key findings are explained below.

Female software developers traditionally came from a variety of backgrounds, whereas males were more likely to major in computer science. However, times are changing: Young women are now 33 percent more likely to study computer science compared to women born before 1983.

The most in-demand programming languages for roles across front-end, back-end and full-stack are also the most common programming languages that women report being proficient in. They are as follows: Java, Javascript, C, C++ and Python.

The most popular industry female software developers work in is technology (53.3 percent), followed by finance (10.7 percent), education (5 percent), media (4.7 percent), retail (4.5 percent) and automotive (3.6 percent). “Other” makes up the remainder of the percentage.

While there is progress toward gender equality in software development, there is still a discrepancy when it comes to senior positions. Women age 35 and older are 3.5 times more likely to be in a junior position than men. In fact, more than 20 percent of women age 35 and older are still in junior positions.

To view the research report and learn what you can do to contribute to closing the gender gap in computer science, click here.