A question I've also wondered about. I cannot provide any personal anecdotal answers but can provide my thinking on it.
The multitude of stories I've read about reasons why specifically women leave a job, or sometimes the industry, seem to fall into two categories: respect and harassment. Why apply for a job when you see red flags that even if you get hired there's a good chance you'll want to GTFO of there?
By respect I mean: lower pay; lack of career advancement; mansplaining; tedious work items; etc. Harassment I think is self explanatory - if I have to explain it, you'll never understand.
Now, why would your job offer be flying red flags to applicants?
Reputation
Classic example - you work for Uber. Or a subtler example where it's not as endemic but there's still word of mouth that incidents occurred that were swept under the rug instead of shit-canning the people responsible. Whether your team deserves it or not your org is considered toxic and will throw off applicants.
If this is the issue it's likely there's nothing you can do at your level. In fact, depending on the situation I would advise you to start looking for new work :(
Culture
This one is more of a gray area, but I think the more your culture appeals to bro's the more red flags it raises. It is entirely possible for a company to appeal to a younger crowd and be 'fun' and have company events with alcohol and all that without being creepy. But without specific evidence showing otherwise I would understand why some women would assume this to be 'bro friendly' and downgrade accordingly.
Visibility
Do you have women in prominent positions? And are they in positions other than HR, or Docs, or Training or other areas that are considered 'female friendly'? Do you send women to tech meetups, job fairs or conferences?
Being a trailblazer is hard, especially when the odds are stacked against you. Sure, "evidence of absence is not proof of absence" but it doesn't mean there's any proof in the other direction. When trying to find a job I would surely go for the surer thing.
Well, let's just say you covered a lot of my thinking in my decision making process when I'm searching for a job. I'd like to believe (maybe I'm naive), that wherever I go, I will be treated like a human being (and not like a unicorn, because I'm a developer and not an assistant or an HR or whatever).
Although I'm not looking at the company's website to find the percentage of women that work there, I can see this can be more appealing to a junior dev. On the other hand, I personally would be more keen on choosing a particular position, if I were to be interviewed (in addition to male) by female developers in higher positions, too. That would definitely matter as we people, when being in an unknown environment, tend to feel more comfortable with other people we can relate to. That's biology.
Culture is an important aspect. I strongly believe that the company's culture is more important than your own, meaning, that you can come from a different background, but when the company's (good) culture (a non sexist one of course, and yes women can be sexist too) is forced upon you, then this can be a safe and perfect environment for any developer, in equal grounds.
At my current company we used to be few women (at various roles, unfortunately few developers), but now we are getting more and more, which makes me hopeful.
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A question I've also wondered about. I cannot provide any personal anecdotal answers but can provide my thinking on it.
The multitude of stories I've read about reasons why specifically women leave a job, or sometimes the industry, seem to fall into two categories: respect and harassment. Why apply for a job when you see red flags that even if you get hired there's a good chance you'll want to GTFO of there?
By respect I mean: lower pay; lack of career advancement; mansplaining; tedious work items; etc. Harassment I think is self explanatory - if I have to explain it, you'll never understand.
Now, why would your job offer be flying red flags to applicants?
Reputation
Classic example - you work for Uber. Or a subtler example where it's not as endemic but there's still word of mouth that incidents occurred that were swept under the rug instead of shit-canning the people responsible. Whether your team deserves it or not your org is considered toxic and will throw off applicants.
If this is the issue it's likely there's nothing you can do at your level. In fact, depending on the situation I would advise you to start looking for new work :(
Culture
This one is more of a gray area, but I think the more your culture appeals to bro's the more red flags it raises. It is entirely possible for a company to appeal to a younger crowd and be 'fun' and have company events with alcohol and all that without being creepy. But without specific evidence showing otherwise I would understand why some women would assume this to be 'bro friendly' and downgrade accordingly.
Visibility
Do you have women in prominent positions? And are they in positions other than HR, or Docs, or Training or other areas that are considered 'female friendly'? Do you send women to tech meetups, job fairs or conferences?
Being a trailblazer is hard, especially when the odds are stacked against you. Sure, "evidence of absence is not proof of absence" but it doesn't mean there's any proof in the other direction. When trying to find a job I would surely go for the surer thing.
Hi simonhaisz, thanks for your response!
Well, let's just say you covered a lot of my thinking in my decision making process when I'm searching for a job. I'd like to believe (maybe I'm naive), that wherever I go, I will be treated like a human being (and not like a unicorn, because I'm a developer and not an assistant or an HR or whatever).
Although I'm not looking at the company's website to find the percentage of women that work there, I can see this can be more appealing to a junior dev. On the other hand, I personally would be more keen on choosing a particular position, if I were to be interviewed (in addition to male) by female developers in higher positions, too. That would definitely matter as we people, when being in an unknown environment, tend to feel more comfortable with other people we can relate to. That's biology.
Culture is an important aspect. I strongly believe that the company's culture is more important than your own, meaning, that you can come from a different background, but when the company's (good) culture (a non sexist one of course, and yes women can be sexist too) is forced upon you, then this can be a safe and perfect environment for any developer, in equal grounds.
At my current company we used to be few women (at various roles, unfortunately few developers), but now we are getting more and more, which makes me hopeful.