I am a researcher at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, where my work looks at how women make decisions to have children. While a lot of research has looked at women coming back to the workplace after having children, mine focuses on what is important for women before they make the decision to start a family. Sometimes, it is easier for women to postpone having children, and my work also looks at women’s awareness of the risk they could incur if they wait too long. 

It is to this end that I am contacting you. I wanted to enquire whether you would consent to send my questionnaire to your members.  

So far over 1,000 women worldwide have taken part in this research. Making it not only the largest study of its kind, but also the first that will allow for international comparison. A contribution will be made to four women’s charities on behalf of all those that complete the questionnaire. 

I understand that you will probably want to look at my questionnaire before you can decide. It comprises of two sections. The first looks at women’s attitudes towards having children (my interest being how this changes over the lifetime) and the second examines their knowledge of  fertility problems. It can be found at http://ppsisfaculty.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bxQnm45jJIz88mM 

I am including below a paragraph that can be cut and paste and sent to your members. However, I would be more than happy to answer any queries you might have prior to sending these details to your members, so please feel free to contact me. 

Sincerely, 
Irenee Daly
***************

DevChix has consented to distribute this survey on behalf of researchers at the University of Cambridge.   

While the questionnaire is primarily designed for women who do not have children-any woman between (18-50 years) can fill it in. At the end of the survey you will be able to pick from one of four women’s charities to whom a donation will be made on your behalf. It takes 12 minutes to complete-Details are below: 

When will you have kids?  
Whether or not a woman wants to have children, changes over the course of her life. This questionnaire is designed to model how and when these changes occur. We hope to be able to establish what women of different ages think is a good time of life to have children. This questionnaire also looks at how much women know about reproduction, given that it is an always-growing area of science.

The questionnaire will take 12 minutes to complete. You will also be given further information on the issues raised in the survey. Further instructions/information and contact details will be given once you clink on the link: 
http://ppsisfaculty.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bxQnm45jJIz88mM

Thank you for your time, and please pass this on to as many people as you can, mothers, sisters, colleagues, girlfriends, cousins, classmates, colleagues, friends-around the world. 
Sincerely, 
Irenee Daly (Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge)

Pros:
-If you make a mistake, your partner will almost always catch it.
-The workload is greatly decreased; therefore, productivity is greatly increased
-There’s always someone to talk to and brainstorm with that knows the code as well as you do

Cons:
-Pride can get in the way. Being self conscious about your coding ability can make pair programming very intimidating.
-In a university setting it can be frustrating knowing that your success relies on the cooperation of your partner.
-Also, having time to meet can be difficult.
-Often it turns into a situation in which each person works on part of the project on their own and then they later compile that work.

As an add-on, one of the points my professors made when trying to sell the idea of pair programming to us was that, according to “many studies,” women prefer pair programming. I’m still not sure how I feel about this. “They” say it is because women like to be in groups.

Take it as you will. But the point is I guess that you really have to know the environment you are in, what kind of person you are and what kind of person you will be working with is, in order for pairing to work.