Systematic Literature Review of Gender and Software Engineering in Asia

TL;DR

This systematic review examines gender-related research and practices in software engineering across Asia, highlighting active areas, key countries, and future research directions to address cultural and regional factors.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of gender research in Asian software engineering, identifying key topics, countries involved, and suggesting future research directions.

Findings

Active gender research in China, India, and Turkey

Topics range from mental health to organizational practices

Future work should explore regional cultural influences

Abstract

It is essential to discuss the role, difficulties, and opportunities concerning people of different gender in the field of software engineering research, education, and industry. Although some literature reviews address software engineering and gender, it is still unclear how research and practices in Asia exist for handling gender aspects in software development and engineering. We conducted a systematic literature review to grasp the comprehensive view of gender research and practices in Asia. We analyzed the 32 identified papers concerning countries and publication years among 463 publications. Researchers and practitioners from various organizations actively work on gender research and practices in some countries, including China, India, and Turkey. We identified topics and classified them into seven categories varying from personal mental health and team building to organization. Future research directions include investigating the synergy between (regional) gender aspects and cultural concerns and considering possible contributions and dependency among different topics to have a solid foundation for accelerating further research and getting actionable practices.