| Do you have a citation? I'm not sure about software specifically, but here are citations that suggest that diversity improves financial performance, team performance and innovation: Beryl Nelson (Google) had a talk in March at a conference called "Voices - Creating Global Connections": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMU5RmkxOc Here are a few instructive slides from the first 7 minutes: * Financial Performance: Companies with a higher proportion of women in their top management have better financial performance ..* from Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Pascal Baumgarten: Women Matter: Gender diversity, a corporate performance driver, McKinsey Report, 2007; similar results in Catalyst study; and for differences in race, by Cedric Herring * Better Innovation outcomes (Page, 2009, Cox 2001) ..* Mixed gender tech patents are more cited (Ashcraft et al, 2007) * Teams with gender diversity are more productive; better decisions: ..* Malone et al, 2010: women make teams smarter * Gender in teams and collective intelligence (higher collective intelligence is correlated with higher percentage of women) ..* Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone: Defend your Research: What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women, Harvard Business Review Report, June 2011 |