Bridging the Gap: A Data-Driven Analysis of How Traditional Software Engineering Productivity Metrics Overlook Women’s Performance

Traditional productivity metrics in software engineering, such as lines of code, commits, and task duration, often fail to capture essential subjective factors like collaboration and well-being. This gap disproportionately affects women, who face additional challenges including gender bias, microaggressions, and double workload. Based on a survey with 85 female software engineers in Brazil, this study analyzes how these challenges impact performance and reveals that conventional metrics undervalue women’s contributions. The findings highlight the need for a more inclusive framework that recognizes both technical and non-technical work.