There are a couple of things here. The thing about introversion is it is manifestation is as varied as the stereotypical computer programmer. After all, it will be.
I was (and still am) a horrendous introvert. I don’t think on the very extreme of the scale but it’s bad enough. Being around people is physically exhausting, but doable and I’ve found that equilibrium through a mixture of ‘practise’ and adaptation. The problem is nobody would ever imagine I’m an introvert. That has come from years of having to deal with it in different contexts, including agile development.
I still don’t produce code as fast in a pair, nor do I work exceptionally in groups, especially with the resulting plethora of conversation, but the benefits of pairing, in the sense of knowledge transfer and risk reduction are logical constructs which appeal to my “Take one for the good of the group” sort of mentality and also make it significantly easier to reason it away and engage, if that makes sense.
I don’t know that the social constructs will necessarily attract more women into the industry. I’m not convinced there is a correlation there by itself (it might have other dependent factors). Plus we still have the “brogrammer” phenomenon going on in some cases, which introduce its own type of problem that needs addressing.
There is a US chap on LI called Kurt Cagel, himself an introvert, who wrote a series of Pulse articles on this (ambiverts and extrovert too) and they summed up a heck of a lot of stuff which really chimed with me. Might be worth a read.
