Women in Computing: How can gender and diversity enable digital innovation?

为了充分了解我希望进行的研究的范围，必须检查现有的论文并选择一条路径。因此，我概述了三个主要的调查领域。先前的研究表明，不同性别的群体在完成编程任务的方法上存在差异。主要的区别是由于完成程序的时间限制，他们的可扩展性方法。女性小组以一种意味着游戏规模扩大的方式接近任务，而男性小组以一种低效的方式接近任务，以便在给定的时间内完成任务（Ashcroft, 2018）。这种方法上的差异与性别有关，这可能表明，如果一个混合性别的小组被管理，就会在两者上达成妥协，多样性可能会导致更有凝聚力的结果。2018年，女性仅占STEM劳动力的22% （WISE Campaign， 2019年），IT专业人员中只有16%是女性。此外，STEM学徒中的女性人数正在缓慢增加，但完成度仍在持续下降（WISE Campaign, 2019）。工作场所的性别比例与他们所建立的受众明显不同。然而，同样重要的是要记住，尽管性别是大多数研究的焦点，当涉及到计算机科学的多样性时，性别并不是考虑多样性的唯一因素。数据显示，2009/10学年，罗素集团大学的白人学生占学生总数的80%”（Race, 2019），这可以与英国86%的人口为白人的人口相媲美（Office of Statistics, 2018）。比较男性和女性参与STEM的情况，数据显示，2009/10年度，非洲黑人少数民族群体中女性多于男性参与STEM相关科目（Race, 2019）。这表明，关于种族和性别的多样性问题的重叠并不是相互联系的，而是两者都有问题。种族和性别当然不是定义一个人的唯一特征，考虑一个人的其他因素也很重要，特别是那些人们认为给他们带来困难的因素，或者为什么受到不同对待的原因。正如我在之前的研究中对不同性别群体所显示的那样，男性和女性处理任务的方式不同。这种不同的观点已经被证明可以创造出更强大的产品。研究表明，高管团队性别多样性排名前25%的公司，其利润高于平均水平的可能性要高出15%。（见注39）就创新而言，通过创意产生有意义的变化的过程，可以说也是如此，但在多大程度上？事实证明，多样性可以增加公司的潜在收益（福布斯网站，2019年），创新也可以增加公司的潜在收益（亚马逊网络服务，2019年）。因此，也许可以假设，多样性和创新可以携手并进，以改善数字服务和团队的工作实践。本研究的目的是推断性别和多样性对数字创新的影响程度。在第一个例子中，这将通过收集参与者小组来完成，每个小组都有不同程度的多样性，并要求他们完成一项任务。他们在任务中的效率和他们带来的创造力将与团队的多样性水平进行比较。

To fully understand the extent of the research I wish to undertake, existing papers must be examined and a path must be chosen. Therefore I have outlined 3 main areas to investigate. Previous research shows the difference in approach to a programming task that groups of different genders took. The main difference was their approach to scalability due to the time constraints given to complete the programme. The female groups approached the task in a way which would have meant the game scaled, and the men approached the task in an inefficient way in order to complete it within the time given (Ashcroft, 2018). This difference in approach, which correlated with gender, could suggest that had a mixed gender group been run, that a compromise on both would have been reached and that diversity could have led to a more cohesive outcome. In 2018, women made up just 22% of the STEM workforce (WISE Campaign , 2019), with just 16% of the workforce of IT professionals being female. Furthermore, women in STEM apprenticeships are slowly increasing in numbers, but completion is continuing to drop (WISE Campaign, 2019). The proportion of gender in the workplace is significantly different from the audience they are building for. However, it is also important to remember that although gender is the focus of most studies when it comes to diversity in Computer Science, gender is not the only factor when considering diversity. Data shows that White students made up 80% of the total student population at Russell Group universities during 2009/10"(Race, 2019), which could be argued to be comparable to the UK population where 86% of the population was white (Office of Statistics, 2018). Comparing male and female participation in STEM, the data revealed that more women than men from the Black African ethnic minority group undertook STEM-related subjects in 2009/10 (Race, 2019). This suggests that the overlap of diversity problems regarding race and gender are not linked but both problematic. Race and gender are of course not the only defining characteristics of people, and it will also be important to consider other elements of a person, particularly those that people believe to have caused them difficulties, or reasons why have been treated differently. As was shown with the separate gender groups in my previous research, men and women approach tasks differently. This difference of opinion has previously been shown to create a stronger product. Research shows that companies in the top 25th percentile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 15% more likely to experience above-average profits (Forbes.com, 2019). In terms of Innovation, the process of generating meaningful change through ideation, the same could be said to be true, but to what extent? Diversity has been proven to increase a company's potential earnings (Forbes.com, 2019), as has Innovation (Amazon Web Services, 2019). Therefore, perhaps it can be assumed that diversity and innovation could work hand in hand to improve digital services and the working practices of teams. The aim of this research is to deduce to what extent gender and diversity influences digital innovation. In the first instance, this will be done by gathering groups of participants, each with varying levels of diversity, and asking them to complete a task. Their effectiveness in their task and the creativity they bring to it will then be compared to the levels of diversity in the groups.