We all know that women are a minority in software development. This bothers us because it's not consistent with how we view the development world. In the ideal profession that exists in our minds:

• All coders have an equal opportunity to be hired – all that matters is the quality of their work.

• Once on the job, developers are treated fairly regardless of gender, race, and other factors – all that matters is the quality of their work.

• Compensation and advancement are awarded fairly in proportion to developers' contributions – all that matters is the quality of their work.

In other words, we view the world of software development as an open meritocracy.

The truth is more complicated. White men are hired disproportionately over other candidates with equal qualifications. Women programmers are widely subjected to discrimination and hostile work environments. And women are under-compensated and under-promoted compared to equally qualified men. We don't want to believe these things, but study after study confirms them. These are the facts.

According to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up 58 percent of the workforce, but only 25 percent of the computing workforce. Between 2000 and 2009, the the percentage of women in the computing workforce dropped 13 percent, while the percentage of men in computing increased 11 percent.

A study by the London Business School revealed that software development teams are most innovative and efficient when they are composed of 50 percent men and 50 percent women. Any other ratio yields lower innovation and lower efficiency. Yet women remain under-represented.

Most of us are uncomfortable with these truths. We'd like to alter the reality to make it conform with our ideals.

Initiatives to open our field to full participation by women have largely been of two kinds.

Some address the “pipeline problem.” The idea is that women are under-represented in high-tech careers because our colleges and universities prepare too few qualified female candidates. Proposed solutions to the pipeline problem can be very inventive. Some activists start with research showing that boys and girls accept gender roles as toddlers, and advocate a wholesale revolution in the way society regards femininity. More commonly, activists attack the pipeline problem by creating incentives for young women to choose technical majors in college.

The second major focus has been networking. Women in tech have formed myriad organizations to provide information and support to other women. These peer-support organizations have attracted high-profile advocates, women who have beaten the odds and ascended to executive positions in high-tech firms.

Neither of these approaches can eliminate the systematic exclusion of women from an equal role in software development. To welcome women into our field – and make our teams more innovative and efficient as a happy result – we must start by accepting the truth about the barriers that currently exist. Then we must change the world. By changing ourselves.

Web recommendation: Unlikely, creative, outstanding nerdy projects! I love this site. J.D. says check it out.

J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. He woke up unaccountably happy this morning. Don't you love it when that happens?

In a recent post, I lamented the small number of women who enter and succeed in our field. My intention then was to suggest that we could benefit, in this agile age, from the kind of mental processing that is traditionally associated with women. I sidestepped the question of why and how it happens that men so dramatically outnumber women in software development.

A new study from the Level Playing Field Institute helps answer these questions. The Tilted Playing Field: Hidden Bias in Information Technology Workplaces (PDF) is an insightful, eye-opening, fact-based analysis of how IT has closed its doors to women and people of color. The report says that IT organizations are all too often hostile environments for members of minority groups.

The Level Playing Field Institute has previously documented the underrepresentation of women and people of color in educational programs intended to lead to high-tech jobs. The new report shows that women and minorities face barriers in the workplace as well.

The report has three main findings:

1. Workplace experiences vary significantly by race and gender. Women and underrepresented people of color experience negative workplace incidents at elevated rates.

2. Negative workplace incidents lead to increased turnover in IT jobs as women and minorities leave the company or the field.

3. Although hiring managers and HR departments believe themselves to be bias-free, efforts to promote diversity are not an operational priority in most organizations.

I find the third finding the most interesting. It means that even those who believe themselves to be part of the solution are likely part of the problem.

Read the report for yourself. It's an eye-opener.

Web recommendation: Are you on the DevOps bandwagon yet? I predict it's only a matter of time. Increasing communication between development and operations makes both parts of the business run better. I'm going to write about this again and again in the months to come. In the meantime, there's a pretty good introduction here: What is DevOps? J.D. says check it out.

J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. He recently relocated to a small town outside Belgrade – stop by if your travels take you through Serbia.

A ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP was held here in New York this week. I asked one of its leaders about diversity in IT hiring and what resources there are for companies when they are hiring.

It was an interesting conversation, and we are going to touch base again next week. I will be speaking to a few think tanks as well as companies that are making a real effort to nurture and attract talent from the whole of society.

Here's my own observation: When I go to trade shows, they remind me of a fraternity mixer. There are few women, and even fewer minorities aside from folks in the GLBT community. There is a lot of untapped potential that the industry could use to innovate its way forward, and it is our obligation to clear a path for anyone—regardless of their background—to work toward a career in computer science.