Underrepresentation of women in computer systems research

TL;DR

This paper investigates the gender gap in computer systems research, revealing that women constitute only about 10% of authors, a significantly lower ratio than in computer science overall, unaffected by conference policies.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of gender representation specifically in computer systems research, highlighting systemic issues beyond conference policies.

Findings

Women represent about 10% of systems researchers.

Conference factors like size and prestige do not influence gender ratio.

Author country and work sector significantly affect women's participation.

Abstract

The gender gap in computer science (CS) research is a well-studied problem, with an estimated ratio of 15%--30% women researchers. However, far less is known about gender representation in specific fields within CS. Here, we investigate the gender gap in one large field, computer systems. To this end, we combined data from 53 leading systems conferences with external demographic and bibliometric data to evaluate the ratio of women authors and the factors that might affect this ratio. Our main findings are that women represent only about 10% of systems researchers, and that this ratio is not associated with various conference factors such as size, prestige, double-blind reviewing, and inclusivity policies. Author research experience also does not significantly affect this ratio, although author country and work sector do. The 10% ratio of women authors is significantly lower than that of CS as a whole. Our findings suggest that focusing on inclusivity policies alone cannot address this large gap. Increasing women's participation in systems research will require addressing the systemic causes of their exclusion, which are even more pronounced in systems than in the rest of CS.