I think "Hedging" could be a Feminist Issue in Software Engineering

Abstract

When it comes to software engineering and the development life-cycle, there are a number of opportunities for under-represented groups, gender being the focus of this paper, for decisions to be affected by language. Considering existing linguistics research surrounding gendered language, specifically "Hedging", alongside various stages of the development life-cycle, this paper poses that "Hedging" should be seen as a feminist issue in software engineering, and presents five areas for further research to uncover the potential negative effects it is having, and what can be done to mitigate these. This paper focuses on the subtleties in conversation, and how conversation takes place, building on Feminist Conversation Analysis, Feminist Methodologies, and Software Engineering Methodologies.