Game jams and hackathons are time-bounded collaborative events where participants are challenged to gather in teams, ideate a project, and develop a game or another kind of software, respectively [24, 27, 33]. While game jams focus on creating games under a particular theme, hackathons involve developing other types of software applications (e.g., web, mobile) to tackle a problem. Students, professionals, and enthusiasts have different motivations for participating in such events (e.g., learning, networking, and having fun). Regardless of specific motivations, these venues work as an informal setting for learning where participants can gain experience while acquiring technical (e.g., programming, design) and nontechnical skills (e.g., teamwork, presentation skills). These collaboration spaces also offer rich networking opportunities and boost participants’ employability, regardless of being beginners or professionals. Although so many advantages sound attractive to participants, these events typically have an overwhelming majority of men participating. Despite a few isolated initiatives to create more gender-inclusive game jams and hackathons [25, 31, 36, 38], the culture and ethos created around these events are not perceived as welcoming to historically underrepresented groups in the software development field, such as women and LGBTQIA+ people.

These efforts are majorly focused on broadening the participation of women in the field [37] and approach gender from a traditional binary and cisnormative woman/man perspective that ends up unintentionally discouraging or excluding transgender (binary and non-binary) and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people [28]. Transgender and gender non-conforming people tend to be invisible in initiatives around gender diversity in computer science and related courses. An important standpoint to embrace gender diversity in society as a whole is to accept that gender goes beyond a binary woman/man perspective [5].

LGBTQIA+ students on CS-related courses already have a higher probability of dropping out of universities due to their low sense of belonging [44]. When looking into more specific problems of higher education trans-students, many of them consider harassment and violence as other reasons to drop out [16]. The reality in Latin America is of violence against transgenders, with a high murder rate toward them, transphobia, hate and many forms of extreme violence, and micro-aggressions [39]. Since the transgender community has higher unemployment and poverty rates compared with the cisgender population [51], education can be an important tool to attain a job and allow social mobility. By acquiring technical skills in information technology and software engineering, low-income trans-people can be empowered [26]. This population is often overlooked in studies in software engineering.

Under lenses that consider women and LGBTQIA+, with highlights on TGNC people, this chapter consolidates findings from different research initiatives [29, 30, 35] we performed on gender diversity in game jams and hackathons. We combined quantitative and qualitative research methods to analyze a total of 330 responses from surveys and 28 interviews with women and LGBTQIA+ people. We identified some of the main motivators and demotivators for people from these historically underrepresented groups to participate in these events. We also report contrasting perspectives that cis-men have in comparison with the ones from women and TGNC people about gender issues in these events and highlight the typical sexist behavior of men participating in hackathons and game jams that definitely shall not take place. Finally, we propose recommendations for a more welcoming space and truly gender-inclusive game jams and hackathons. Our experience suggests that these events, if well planned and executed, may become drivers to change attitudes and stereotypes regarding gender in computing.

Background

Gender Beyond the Woman-Man Binary

Gender should not be limited to a binary woman/man perspective. We acknowledge that there are many gender identities and gender expressions that can be very particular to social and cultural contexts (e.g., muxe in Mexico, travesti in Brazil) [7], and it would be out of scope, as well as challenging, trying to explore that in detail here. For clarification purposes, in this section, we highlight concepts that will be helpful in the context of this chapter.

Transgender (or simply trans) refers to “people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, people who cross over (trans-) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain that gender” [10]. Gender identity refers to how one perceives oneself, and it is not associated with sexual attraction. Cisgender (or simply cis) is when the gender identity aligns with their birth-assigned gender [21]. Note that straight is not the opposite of trans; a transgender person can be heterosexual too. When someone defines our society as cisnormative, it indicates that our common sense is to accept only cisgender behavior and marginalize people that do not follow it [3].

A transgender person can be also binary or non-binary. Non-binary trans-people are “individuals whose identity is not exclusively man or woman. While some non-binary individuals identify as both men and women, others have identities that are on the spectrum between man and woman, a different gender entirely, or do not identify with any gender” [46]. Non-binary can be used as identity but is more an umbrella term that serves to group identities like genderfluid (i.e., the identity of the person flows between other identities) and agender (i.e., the absence of gender).

Gender non-conformity is when your gender expression (i.e., the way of dressing, mannerisms, pronouns, and other characteristics) does not conform to stereotypical gender expectations for your assigned gender [21]. For example, a masculine cisgender woman can define herself as a gender non-conforming person, because she has gender expression associated with the masculine gender, but stills identify herself as a woman.

Gender Diversity in the Information Technology Industry

It is important to recognize that the lack of gender inclusion is present in the broader area of technology, which is one of the sectors that most need diversity in their workforce [18, 20]. The inclusion of women can be beneficial in the market, given that more diverse teams tend to have better results in the same tasks than nondiverse teams – for using collective intelligence [52]. Also, radical company innovations tend to come from more diverse groups, but it is necessary to manage these groups and respect the different present backgrounds [6]. The sense of non-belonging of the LGBTQIA+, which is underrepresented in the technology sector, is also an early barrier that not only contributes to the fear to enter this field of work but also makes the people uncomfortable and more willing to give up their graduation and careers in computing-related courses [44]. LGBTQIA+ people still suffer direct impediments to entering the tech industry because of prejudice and discrimination. Large enterprises are talking about the importance of inclusion, especially because the culture within the companies cannot be changed without working with employees and their perceptions about the LGBTQIA+ community [20].

If we narrow down the perspective to the gaming industry, according to the 2019 International Game Developers Association (IGDA) developer satisfaction survey [49], which collected 1,116 answers, respondents were predominately identified as male (71%), and 24% identified as female, 3% identified as non-binary, and 2% preferred to self-describe other denominations. Women are still one-fourth of the workforce. In a separate question, 4% of respondents identified as transgender.

In regard to sexual orientation, 79% of respondents identified as heterosexual, 4% as homosexual, and 12% as bisexual, and 5% selected the option Other. Although these numbers show that the LGBTQIA+ community is a non-negligible percentage, this group still faces discrimination and prejudice among the majority of cisgender heterosexual men in the gaming industry. For instance, there has been a recent wave of online harassment aimed at female and LGBTQIA+ game designers [23]. Also, the gaming industry has had a persistent history of homophobia, and many LGBTQIA+ employees feel uncomfortable with their jobs because they have to deal directly with homophobic colleagues [41]. As another example, LGBTQIA+ employees who are part of the indie game industry continue to suffer from precarious conditions as they do not have the same support that straight cisgender people have [40].

Low Gender Diversity in Game Jams and Hackathons

Hackathons and game jams offer participants the chance to connect with local or even global communities, in cases of virtual events [12]. These events enable students and professionals to acquire new skills and find new career opportunities. In fact, these events are frequently used as a recruitment strategy by the computing industry. Although hackathons and game jams have been widely adopted to different contexts and flavors, concerns have been raised regarding the lack of gender diversity in these events [8]. This issue can be translated into a loss of opportunity to recruit more women and generate more diversity and gender equity in the area. The average participant profile on these types of events evokes a resemblance with the term brogrammer, a portmanteau of “bro” and “programmer” that attempts to represent the knowledge of coding as macho hypermasculine stereotypes [42]. These types of male stereotypes, in combination with stereotypes imposed on the female gender, discourage involvement and a sense of belonging of women in courses related to computer science and STEM in general [4]. In a study on college hackathons, the “hacker culture” and “hardcore ethos” are two of the main reasons that inhibit women from attending these events [48], while in game jams low female attendance is related to a sexist and misogynistic gaming culture [23].

Typical hackathons and game jams have not been successful in significantly increasing women’s participation. As an attempt to change that culture, there are some efforts to change that scenario. In literature, we found reports about hackathons focusing on broader participation to diversify their audience [38] to attract more women and non-binary participants [25, 31] (e.g., StitchFest, Hack Grrrl, T9Hacks). Similarly, women-only game jams [22] have been organized as a way to foster equal participation of women in the game industry. A common issue to address in such events is the so-called competence-confidence gap, which occurs mainly in women who have the competence to perform a task but do not demonstrate the necessary confidence. This phenomenon has been observed in STEM and in collaborative platforms such as GitHub [47]. There is a similar problem related to the confidence of women participants in game jams who feel less confident than men when participating in these events, as we reported in previous work [9].

Recently, companies from different domains have been organizing events in the format of hackathons to recruit new talents [33, 45]. Considering the importance of hackathons and game jams in the learning process beyond classrooms and for the insertion of new professionals in their industries, we are concerned that the lack of women participating in these events may hinder the entry of women into the technology industry. Motivated by these factors, we attempted to analyze empirical data to understand why women are underrepresented in these events and what are the reasons women are not inspired to participate.

Previous Research on Gender-Related Issues in Hackathons and Game Jams

What we present in this chapter is a consolidation of recommendations, based on different research articles [29, 30, 35] in which we were dedicated to understanding gender-related issues in hackathons and game jams. These studies combined results from quantitative and qualitative research methods. In total, they accumulate 330 responses from surveys and 28 interviews with women and LGBTQIA+ people. Methodological details can be found in the original research articles.

In the work of Paganini et al. [30], we identified some of the main motivators and demotivators for women to participate in hackathons and game jams, collecting survey data from participants of eight events (two game jams and six hackathons) that took place in Recife, Brazil. Among those, one event of each type was focused on women. We also collected data from women who never participated in hackathons, to understand the reasons for that. This research helped gather complementary perspectives of women who have participated in hackathons and game jams as well as women who never joined such events. Women who never participated said they had low confidence in their technical abilities and feared being judged in a predominantly male environment. Another aspect they do not enjoy about these events is the typical format of a weekend-long event. The women who have experienced these events also complained that a predominantly male environment makes them uncomfortable and also generates difficulties in team formation when they have their skills underestimated by men. Also, they complained of not having a voice in their teams and even reported some cases of verbal harassment by men.

In the study performed by Oliveira et al. [29], we investigated the perspective of LGBTQIA+ people that participated in the Global Game Jam (GGJ) 2021. The GGJ is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the world, taking place at a weekend in January since 2009. It involves tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual sites in over 100 countries around the world [19]. The purpose of this research was to contribute to gender diversity in game jams and propose some strategies to deal with challenges that LGBTQIA+ may find in game jams. Our study focused on data collected through a survey and interviews with participants of the GGJ’21 (online due to COVID-19) from Brazilian hubs. Among the interviewees, some participants witnessed situations of homophobia, transphobia, and sexism in other game jams. Participants also highlighted the importance of attending the event with a friend if they did not have any experience yet; there was much hesitation in joining the event alone.

The third study, from Prado et al. [35], focused on difficulties faced by TGNC people when participating in hackathons. We performed a survey and interviews with TGNC people who have participated in hackathons. Their motivations to participate are the typical ones found in hackathon literature, such as learning, networking, and teamwork experience. However, some interviewees reported being a victim of different types of discrimination from the other participants and from the organization staff, mainly because of their gender expression. Part of them does not want to join such events anymore because they are afraid of being victims of LGBTQPhobia again. Survey respondents complained about events not having clear policies on codes of conduct against LGBTQPhobia and gender discrimination.

Recommendations for Gender-Inclusive Events

Some of the intersections in the studies we performed strictly focused on women-inclusive events and others on events that should be more welcoming to LGBTQIA+ people. We merged the recommendations of those studies to generate a set of ten recommendations we believe to be more gender-inclusive, but without a binary man-woman perspective: (1) Start with a gender-inclusive organizing team. (2) Foster inclusive communication. (3) Make safety visible through an explicit code of conduct. (4) Provide equipment to participants and showcase people in the event. (5) Promote events to attract underrepresented genders. (6) Stimulate groups of friends joining together. (7) Introduce elements that underrepresented genders can relate to. (8) Promote learning activities to stimulate both technical and soft skills. (9) Focus more on collaboration and less on competition. (10) Stimulate healthier habits.

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    Start with a gender-inclusive organizing team. In some events we organized, we observed that the presence of women in the organization can establish a less intimidating environment for female participants creating a sense of belonging for them. We obtained explicit feedback from women regarding the importance of inviting women to act as mentors and part of the judging panel [30]. The inclusion of staff and especially mentors of different genders and sexual orientations could help bring a sense of belonging [29, 35]. Particularly in the case of TGNC people, their participation is still scarce in these events. Trans-people in the organization would not only assist in creating additional inclusion measures but could also help build a safer space for other TGNC participants [35]. As a positive side effect, specifically inviting trans-professionals as mentors might positively contribute to their professional careers, thus contributing to the inclusion in the technology field as a whole.

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    Foster inclusive communication. The use of inclusive language (before, during, and after the event) is essential to welcome all audiences [35]. Using neutral language is important especially in languages that have masculine and feminine grammatical genders such as French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Advertising can also be inclusive; by focusing on special calls directed to different communities, they can feel included and engaged in registering for the event [9]. It is interesting to include promotional campaigns explaining the opportunities to learn new competencies and meet open-minded people, thus highlighting the typical motivations of learning and networking [13, 30]. In the registration form, allow participants to fill out their preferred names (avoid requesting their registration name) and pronouns. It is important to avoid terms that reduce people to their birth-assigned sex (e.g., male and female) [21]. Rather than having a pre-fixed set of identities, leave open the gender identity field. Provide identification badges in which participants can put their names and chosen pronouns. For online events, make pronouns visible on the participants’ profiles. For organizers, make sure that participants, mentors, and staff respect the information that participants provided.

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    Make safety visible through an explicit code of conduct. Talking more about diversity and providing guidelines on how people can deal with differences is key to a participant’s experience in these events. So it is fundamental to have a code of conduct explaining such aspects and making it visible to every participant since the beginning of the event [29]. A code of conduct must clearly state that sexism, LGBTQPhobia, and other discriminatory attitudes (not only from participants) are not tolerated [35]. Organizers should establish practices that guarantee all participants have an equal voice and have the opportunity to play the role they feel capable of and prevent discrimination. The staff must also verbally reinforce the code of conduct during the event, which would remind that everyone (including mentors and staff) needs to be respectful of each other. In addition, staff should be effective in preventing inappropriate situations and negative attitudes of participants [30]. It is important to create a safe way to denounce bad behavior, so any code of conduct violation can result in expulsion from the event. Such attitudes could ultimately create a safe space for everyone.

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    Provide equipment to participants and showcase people in the event. LGBTQIA+ people face many social issues, including homelessness, because many people from that community are kicked out or asked to leave the home of their parents, relatives, foster, or group homes because of prejudice toward them [43]. Transgender and gender-diverse people live in financial strain [50], making up a high number of people in many low-wage sectors [17]. In addition to financial difficulties, many members of that group already drop out of higher education for many reasons such as a lack of a sense of belonging, harassment, and violence [16, 44]. The fact of not having proper equipment to join in a hackathon or game jam may refrain them from participating. Although this is almost non-existing practice, organizers could offer proper equipment or propose projects that could be done without using high-performance technologies, so low-income or socially unprivileged people could participate. As technology is a tool to empower minoritized groups such as transgender people [26], showcasing them in the event or individually awarding them for specific tasks (i.e., best pitch, best UI, best back end) can put them in the spotlight so sponsors and eventual recruiters in the event can notice these people. The participants’ talents can be recognized, and they can be invited to selection processes, which would hardly have happened under normal conditions.

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    Promote events to attract underrepresented genders. This is a general recommendation that has some caveats. Organizing hackathons and game jams focused on gender diversity can be a good strategy to create a sense of belonging for participants of underrepresented genders (e.g., women, TGNC) in these events. This makes them lower their barrier to later participate in typical mixed-gender events. In our experience with gender-focused events, women felt more comfortable participating since one of the obstacles is that an event predominantly composed of men discourages them from joining [30]. This is not only a matter of women-focused hackathons and game jams but events that welcome LGBTQIA+ too. Arguments on that direction were highlighted in one of our studies where one participant cited the name “diversity” in a Global Game Jam hub he joined, which made him feel in a safe space [29]. However, just putting a diversity label in an event is not enough. We identified cases of a woman who did not fit in on a women-focused event and a transphobia case in another women-focused event. It showed us that something more is needed. Such aspects pointed out in the studies we have performed suggest that the other recommendations have to be put into practice to ensure both (i) a sense of belonging and (ii) the creation of a safe space.

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    Stimulate groups of friends joining together. Many participants mentioned the fun and joy of joining in hackathons and game jams, especially with friends [29, 35]. Although networking is one of the motivations to participate in hackathons [30], shy and introverted people may suffer to fit in. Even in a women-focused event, a woman interviewee abandoned participation in a game jam because she was not comfortable working with a team in which she did not know anyone previously [29]. This can bring a discussion about someone coming to an event with a pre-formed group who might lose networking with others as this person may focus their interactions with their friends. On the other hand, there is a larger benefit: friends can play a great role in encouraging people who perceive these collaborative events as intimidating or in an unknown setting. However, this recommendation shall not be seen as a rule; otherwise, it would end up excluding people who have no friends who attend hackathons and game jams.

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    Introduce elements that underrepresented genders can relate to. A way to attract women and the LGBTQIA+ public to hackathons and game jams is to introduce in these events some elements that members of these communities can relate to [29]. The relevance of increasing diversity themes (e.g., gender equity, social justice) in hackathons and games jams can attract more people. In general, social and humanitarian topics generate more empathy. For instance, in humanitarian free open source projects, women and underrepresented groups are more attracted by the opportunity to assist others [34]. An element brought by participants was to bring more visibility to LGBTQIA+ organizers and mentors through specific items (e.g., clothes, badges, pinback buttons, event advertisement digital cards) so that participants who are also part of that community can notice that and have a sense of belonging [29].

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    Promote learning activities to stimulate both technical and soft skills. Hackathons and game jams are powerful tools for participants to learn and put into practice their technical and soft skills. This is common ground among many participants in these types of event [2, 11, 13, 29, 30, 35]. Students can acquire new competencies and have hands-on experience that complements their academic degree. However, we observed some participants have low confidence in their abilities, and this is also a reason for some people not joining these events [30]. To increase their motivation, it would be interesting to include training workshops and provide resources that participants can study before the events. In addition, the fun and learning aspects should be emphasized during the events [30, 35].

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    Focus more on collaboration and less on competition. Fostering a competitive or collaborative ambience is a design choice made by organizers [33]. The traditional competitive hackathon format is common when there are incentives such as awards and prizes being offered. A cooperative event can be achieved when social elements are introduced – for example, stimulating participants to pitch project ideas or to wander around the premises and discuss with other teams – thus helping participants from different teams to collaborate and network [32]. Since learning and networking are key motivations for participating, we suggest that organizers could plan events that concentrate less on the competition among teams. Such competitive aspects of game jams and especially hackathons may discourage some people. Of course, having a prize is an important aspect of some events, but we believe that winning should not be promoted as their ultimate goal. Women are stimulated to share their experiences and collaborate with peers, but they expect a welcoming environment. It will also address the fear that many women participants have regarding their performance. Men tend to be more competitive than women in hackathons [30]. In game jams, women [9, 29] and LGBTQIA+ [29] prefer a more collaborative environment, and a spirit of collaboration is important in these events.

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    Stimulate healthier habits. Another aspect that inhibits participation is the intensive format of events. Weekend events may prevent participants to join because of family commitments [1]. Staying overnight may contribute to low productivity and may be impractical especially for women with children. In fact, we observed that some women feel uncomfortable spending the night at the venue [31]. We suggest alternative schedules to attract more women. It is also important to create a friendly space where everyone feels safe. In addition, the availability of mainly junk food was considered a negative aspect by many participants of our events. Providing healthy food and pauses for fun moments and relaxing during social breaks may create a well-being ambience [30].

As a way to validate these guidelines, we applied them in a hackathon aiming to generate digital solutions in the context of an NGO from Brazil working with socially vulnerable people living with HIV [15]. Part of the material made available [14] exemplifies some of these guidelines (e.g., inclusive communication, elements that underrepresented genders can relate to).

Conclusions

Hackathons and game jams create an environment where informal learning takes place, allowing peers with a multidisciplinary background to share ideas and knowledge. Due to the sexist culture around programming, games, and STEM, in general, the typical behavior of men in these events creates a sometimes unpleasant experience for women and LGBTQIA+ participants and also repels those who never participated. Our studies reveal that hackathons and game jams targeted especially at people from underrepresented genders can create a support network where they feel more confident in their competencies. Nevertheless, mixed-gender events need to prevent the ”brogrammer stereotype” by successfully embracing women and LGBTQIA+ in a protective and welcoming environment so they can be more gender-inclusive. Changing the culture at the micro-level of hackathons and game jams can be a starting point for a broader gender-inclusive transformation in the computing area. This transformation is beneficial for everyone, as more diversity means a greater range of visions and experiences, increasing collective creativity toward the resolution of problems. Many future studies can be pursued in this area, such as understanding whether the participation of people from underrepresented gender in the events impacted their academic and professional experiences or exploring other potential benefits that hackathons and game jams may bring for their careers (e.g., building core professional competencies). There are limitations in the studied audiences – restricted to some Brazilian hackathons and game jams – as well as in the findings, which may not be generalized to other countries. However, many of the findings are supported by literature focused on Western countries and may serve as a starting point for other research.