New Video “Code” and the Quest for Inclusive Software, and a big question for Broadening Participation in Computing

The article quoted below is about a new documentary on gender issues in the computing industry.  More interestingly, the article raises an important question for broadening participation in computing:  Can we come up with examples of where a lack of diversity impacts the software product?

“Code” also addresses a question that has been discussed less often. When Reynolds described the film’s theme to her mother, her mother asked, “Well, Robin, why does it matter who’s coding as long as we have the products?” It’s a valid question: If women don’t want to program, what’s the harm? Reynolds told me that it led her to seek out, in her interviews, cases in which less diverse engineering teams created worse products than they otherwise might have. “I said, ‘Can you give me an example of where not having a diverse coding team has affected the product?’” she recalled.

via “Code” and the Quest for Inclusive Software – The New Yorker.