Name: Women in software engineering: what gives?
Start: 2026-05-28T14:45:00+0200
End: 2026-05-28T15:15:00+0200

Women in software engineering: what gives?

FULL

Thursday May 28, 2026 14:45 - 15:15 CEST

👾 DEV/TECH ARENA

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

With the advent of the age of AI software has never played such an outsized role in our daily lives and yet women only account for a small minority of software engineers. This is especially disheartening given that many - but not all - of the first software engineers were women (Ada Lovelace, Katherine Johnson, Margaret Hamilton, Grace Hopper, ...).

This talk aims to stay away from dogma or political posturing, instead focusing on explaining why more women aren't software engineers and proposing concrete, tactical and doable solutions.

The first part of the talk recounts the stories of some of the pioneers who built flight control systems for the Apollo mission, lamenting that their stories aren't more widely known.

I then use those examples to contrast with the current state in our Industry where female developers only account for a minority of software engineers.

I'll then give an overview of why I believe more women don't become software engineers, briefly explaining why this is the case.

I'll also share why some of the women who become software engineers eventually leave our Industry and what we can do to retain them.

Finally, I'll conclude with concrete actions we can all take in order to increase the amount of women in software engineering.

This is a tentative/more detailed outline of the talk:

Introduction: the pioneers.
Ask attendees to look around them, notice how little women are in the room.

This wasn't always the case and we have many examples of women who've made massive contributions to software engineering: from Ada Lovelace to Grace Hopper.

How we got here.
The first part of the talk uses a data driven approach to describing the problem at hand, focusing on how many women are developers.

Why we got here: women in STEM
After underlining the fact that education is key and that only a small amount of women pursue an education in STEM I'll briefly explain why that is.

Adding insult to injury: female software engineers in the workplace
I'll then continue on by explaining that even when they are software engineers a lot of women end up leaving our Industry despite haven chosen a career path in software engineering.

What can be done about it?
Finally, I'll focus on the possible solutions we as individuals can implement in order to increase the amount of women who become software engineers and make our teams more diverse. I'll focus on the power of mentorship, the importance of retaining the female software engineers on your team by fostering a culture of respect, empathy and excellence.

AI and software are transforming our lives and shaping how we view, interact with and perceive the world; and yet software engineering teams are way too often stacked with men. This talk isn't about political posturing or gimmicks, it's about explaining how we got here, providing data on what the current state of affairs is, why this problem matters (importance of building diverse teams) and what can be done to solve it. The solutions proposed don't include quotas or political dogma but instead focus on concrete solutions like building role models, fostering mentorship and encouraging girls to pursue STEM education.

Speakers

Emma Gaubert

Decathlon

My name is Emma GAUBERT and I'm 28 years old.

I started my career off in Marketing before growing bored of my job and quitting to pursue my dream: to become a Software Engineer. I then spent 9 months learning how to code at a bootcamp before doing a year long apprenticeship at a c... Read More →

Thursday May 28, 2026 14:45 - 15:15 CEST
👾 DEV/TECH ARENA 135 Rue Sadi Carnot, Ronchin, France

Dev / Tech, Talk

Audience Beginner

Attendees (60)

View All →

Success you have shared X tickets.

Dev Summit 2026

Emma Gaubert

Attendees (60)

Waitlist (6)

Get help with the event

Success you have shared X tickets.

Dev Summit 2026

Emma Gaubert

Attendees (60)

Waitlist (6)

Sign up or log in to save this to your schedule, view media, leave feedback and see who's attending!

Get help with the event