Man Different, Female Trio Running Health Management App

Interview with Three Female Developers at Nudge Healthcare Operating Cashwalk
Over 40% of Developers Are Women, Shift to Mobile-Centric Development Environment
Balancing Work and Family with Remote Work Expansion... Dedicated to Keeping Up with the Latest Technologies

Nudge Healthcare, which operates the health management app Cashwalk, has more than 40% of its development staff composed of women. The trio of female developers active at the company (from left) are Senior Developer Park Seongmi, Project Manager Lee Gang-eun, and Backend Developer Lee Sohyun. Photo by Kim Heeyoon

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The COVID-19 pandemic and the explosive growth of the online platform industry have instantly transformed developers into promising professionals. Amid the surge in demand for talent, various majors are applying for development roles, and in the male-dominated IT industry, there is a company where the contributions of female developers stand out. Nudge Healthcare, which operates the health management app Cashwalk, has over 40% of its development workforce composed of women. We asked three female developers working in various parts of the company why the number of female developers is relatively low and what advantages female developers have. First, Park Seongmi, a senior developer in charge of iOS development, explained, “The strength of female developers lies in their meticulous and thorough work style, which allows them to quickly incorporate user feedback into development,” adding, “The shortage of female developers seems to stem from societal gender stereotypes.”

According to the 2020 Software (SW) Industry Survey by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the proportion of female developers is estimated at 54,000 out of 270,000, or 20%. In the past, the “Engineering Beauty” featured in telecom commercials symbolized the rarity of women in IT roles or development jobs. However, with the rapid growth of the venture and startup ecosystem, the cultivation of female development talent is actively underway. Lee Sohyun, a developer who majored in Information and Communication Engineering, said, “Among my peers, the proportion of women was not insignificant, and even before employment, many non-major female developers studied specialized courses at academies.”

Regarding the social image of developers and engineers being male-centered, project manager Lee Kang pointed out, “The first developer was Ada Lovelace, a British woman,” and added, “As the development environment shifted from PC-centric to mobile-centric and the IT industry grew, the number of female developers has been gradually increasing.” The changed gender ratio has led to changes in the work environment. Especially with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of remote and flexible work has increased the importance of female developers who value work-life balance. Senior developer Park said, “I applied for a flexible work schedule due to preparing my child for school, working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and my work concentration has actually improved,” adding, “Compared to a standardized commuting system, flexible and remote work allows me to complete assigned tasks within set hours, improving efficiency.”

Developers face various challenges while directly operating Cashwalk, a health management app used by one in five citizens. The developer said, “Rather than finding the environment of developing and operating large-scale traffic difficult, it was attractive,” adding, “Since users use it daily, we study large-scale traffic management and the latest technology trends in our spare time to ensure stable operation.” The manager added, “Many in-house study groups are actively running, and in the developer study group, we developed a reservation program to resolve the inconvenience of manual meeting room bookings, which is now used company-wide.”

Microsoft operates a technology talent support program called “Barrier-Free Coding” in nine Asia-Pacific markets including Korea, producing many female developers. IT talent nurturing startup Code States announced that the proportion of women in its self-operated “Software Engineering Bootcamp” increased fourfold from 9% in 2017 to 36% last year. The manager said, “While development roles used to have high entry barriers, recently even young people study coding, and with various educational programs, it has become a job anyone can easily challenge,” adding, “In our company, since we operate a health management app, the proportion of female developers with knowledge in healthcare and diet is high, but I believe female developers will increase across all fields in the future.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.