Towards gender balance in modern hackathons
Yekaterina Kovaleva, Ari Happonen, Audrey Mbogho
Abstract
Hackathons are events that originated as competitions for programmers but transformed into project-oriented events given in different contexts and with different sets of goals. Despite the wide range of topics and business fields covered by current hackathons, a lot of events lack female participants. The lack of gender diversity is a problem, as diversity is a well-known and significant contributor to idea generation, innovativeness, and the efficiency of making novel development. This article covered the current literature, identifying the reasons why women show low interest in hackathon participation. Among these reasons, there is impostor syndrome caused by gender stereotypes, the difference between male and female experiences, for example in video games, as well as the undeserved bad reputation of hackathons as sleepless events, aimed only for specialists and guru programmers. However, hackathon organizers have found positive experiences of attracting more women to their events by implementing female-inclusive measures. Based on the literature, we have compiled recommendations to be considered and implemented in event organizing strategies, implementation models, and promotional approaches to achieve better gender balance at hackathon events.