Kriativ-tech Volume 1, Issue 9, April 2018, Pages: xxx Received: Dec. 28, 2019; Accepted: Feb. 25, 2020. Published: Oct. 11, 2021.

Authors

João Emílio Almeida, Assistant Professor at ISTEC-PortoMariana Carneiro, Student at ISTEC-PortoMariana Silva, Student at ISTEC-Porto

Media

PDF

To cite this article

João Emílio Almeida, Mariana Carneiro, Mariana Silva , The (weak) involvement of women in ICT and IS: the case of ISTEC-Porto DOI: 10.31112/kriativ-tech-2021-10-51

Abstract

The aim of this article is to point out some insight at the low female presence in higher education courses related with ICT/IS. What are the reasons that lead most students to seek courses linked to new technologies, such as computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, internet, and cloud computing, to be male whilst fewer female students follow that direction? To better contextualize this issue, data from the last 15 years at ISTEC-Porto are presented, where gender inequality is evident. Some of the reasons found in the literature are indicated and possible solutions to reduce this gender imbalance are pointed out.

Keywords

Gender inequality, digital inclusion, higher education, information technologies.

References

[1] He, J.C., Kang, S.K., Tse, K., & Toh, S.M. (2019). Stereotypes at work: Occupational stereotypes predict race and gender segregation in the workforce. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 115 (2019), 1-17.[2] Vainionpaa, F., Kinnula, M., Iivari, N., & Molin-Juustila, T. (2019). Gendering and segregation in girls’ perceptions of IT as a career choice – a nexus analytic inquiry. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Information Systems Development, Toulon, France.[3] Almeida, B. F. D. (2020). Participação feminina no setor de sistemas de informação/tecnologias de informação em Portugal: evidência empírica (in Portuguese, Master thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão).[4] O’Donnell, A., & Sweetman, C. (2018). Introduction: Gender, development and ICTs. Gender & Development, 26(2), 217-229.[5] Lang, C., Craig, A., Fisher, J., Bennetts, K., & Forgasz, H. (2010). Dualisms: what women say about working in ICT. In Proceedings of the 21st Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Brisbane, Australia.[6] Isaacson, W. (2014). The innovators: How a group of inventors, hackers, geniuses and geeks created the digital revolution. Simon and Schuster.[7] Williams, Kathleen Broome (2001). Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-961-1.[8] Naval Historical Center. https://web.archive.org/web/20000119173039/http://history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h96566kc.htm (accessed Aug. 21, 2021).[9] N. Salim, Meet the "Mother of the Internet [Women to Watch], in IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 10-12, Dec. 2010, doi: 10.1109/MWIE.2010.938214.[10] Dr. Radia J. Perlman. NV Access Limited, NVDA Screen Reader. https://www.nae.edu/130123/Dr-Radia-J-Perlman (accessed Aug. 21, 2021).[11] Leonel Morgado; et al. (2006). Radia Perlman – A pioneer of young children computer programming. Current Developments in Technology-Assisted Education: 1903–1908. doi: 10.1.1.99.8166[12] The Shalvi / Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/perlman-radia (accessed Aug. 23, 2021).[13] National Academy of Engineering https://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412/27854.aspx (accessed Aug. 23, 2021).[14] Steele Jr., Guy (2011). “An interview with Frances E. Allen”.Communications of the ACM. 54:39–45. doi:10.1145/1866739.1866752[15] Martins, P. S. M. (2011). Mulheres nas ciências e tecnologias: escolhas e constrangimentos (in Portuguese, Master thesis, Universidade do Minho). https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/handle/1822/15823[16] Corneliussen, H. G. (2021). Women empowering themselves to fit into ICT. In Technology and Women's Empowerment. Taylor & Francis.[17] Portuguese Women {In Tech} https://www.portuguesewomenintech.com/awards2021 (accessed Sept. 9, 2021).