A research group of Masateru Tsunoda, an associate professor of the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Kinki University, investigated the relationship between the ability of software engineers and gender, and revealed that there is no gender difference in the speed at which engineers understand the program. I made it.
In recent years, it has been pointed out that there is a shortage of IT human resources, and it is important to eliminate the prejudice that science and technology are suitable for men and increase the choices of career paths that lead to IT engineers of female students.Therefore, this time, Kinki University showed quantitative evidence and conducted an analysis focusing on gender for the purpose of breaking prejudice.
Maintenance costs 40 to 67% of the operating cost of software, and it is necessary to understand the program at the time of maintenance.Since it has been pointed out in previous studies that there is a difference in memory ability depending on gender, we confirmed whether there is a difference in comprehension speed depending on gender when reading a program in which comprehension speed is easily affected by memory ability.
16 undergraduate students (8 males and 8 females) majoring in informatics of the same university / department participated in the experiment as subjects.We prepared multiple programs with different degrees of influence on the comprehension speed of memory ability, and measured the time taken by male and female subjects to understand the program.
Studies have shown that if programming experience and education level are comparable, there is little advantage in code comprehension speed by gender, regardless of the memory needs of the target program. With the shortage of IT human resources becoming a problem, it is expected that the results of this research will break down preconceptions about gender and increase the possibility that female students will choose a career path that will lead to IT engineers.
