Women considered better coders – but only if they hide their gender

Researchers find software repository GitHub approved code written by women at a higher rate than code written by men, but only if the gender was not disclosed

When a group of computer science students decided to study the way that gender bias plays out in software development communities, they assumed that coders would be prejudiced against code written by women.

After all, women make up a very small percentage of software developers - 11.2% according to one 2013 survey - and the presence of sexism in all corners of the overwhelmingly male tech industry has been well documented.