Men and women are not equal in the online professional space either

They examined two major international collaboration platforms: GitHub, primarily used by male software developers, and Behance, a platform for creative professionals with a more balanced gender distribution. The study analyzed anonymized data from over 1.5 million GitHub users and 30,000 Behance users, with findings published in the journal PNAS Nexus. 

The study found that both men and women face disadvantages when exhibiting professional behaviors typically associated with women in digital environments. Discrimination against women stems from the gender norms associated with their professional behavior—meaning the types of tasks and projects they engage in are typically associated with women. This explains 60–90% of the disadvantages they experience in terms of success and long-term profile activity. 

Professional behavior was categorized as feminine or masculine based on activity patterns. For example, fashion photography-related comments were predominantly made by women, so engaging in such topics was classified as feminine behavior. In contrast, software development for iOS mobile operating systems was mostly associated with men, meaning participation in such work was considered masculine behavior. 

Invisibility Does Not Guarantee Equal Opportunities 

Interestingly, men who exhibit feminine professional behavior face even stronger discrimination. While the digital space could, in theory, offer a more level playing field for women and other underrepresented groups, the study shows that gender inequality persists even when gender is not explicitly visible. 

Men on these platforms tend to have more followers, receive more recognition (likes), and maintain active accounts for longer periods than women. On GitHub, women receive 6% fewer likes than men, and 90% of this disparity is due to feminine professional behavior. Women are also 6% less likely to maintain long-term active accounts, with 75% of this explained by their association with feminine behavior. 

On Behance, women’s success gap compared to men is 37%, mainly due to behavior-based discrimination. Their “survival disadvantage” (likelihood of maintaining an active profile) is 11%, with 60% of this attributable to feminine behavior. Notably, a higher proportion of female users on a platform does not automatically reduce gender-based behavioral discrimination. 

Visibility: A Double-Edged Sword 

One of the study’s intriguing findings is that, despite facing setbacks in professional success and long-term engagement, women tend to have greater visibility and a larger follower base than expected. This visibility can be both an advantage and a disadvantage—while it provides an opportunity to promote their work, women are often not recognized as experts and face higher levels of harassment, which contributes to attrition. 

The researchers highlight that behavior-related stereotypes can have long-term consequences, reinforcing deep-rooted, invisible, and persistent inequalities. Online platforms may entrench and even amplify gender biases through algorithmic and AI-driven decision-making, as these systems learn from historically biased data in non-transparent ways. 

“Algorithms trained on platform data are more likely to favor code written by users with less feminine behavior or visual content produced by them if success and recognition are used as quality metrics. This is why it is crucial for online platforms to monitor and ensure equal opportunities for all users, preventing algorithms from unintentionally reinforcing unconscious discrimination”, says Orsolya Vásárhelyi, lead author of the study.