Girls' enrollment in computer/IT education: the same fiasco as usual...

Digitization Gender equality Skills supply Education and training
The final admission announcements for this fall's university programs have now been made, and for the computer and IT programs, it's the same bleak reading as usual. While 178 men have been admitted to KTH's master's program in computer engineering, 204 women have been admitted to the country's TOTAL of 36 computer/IT engineering programs. In 29 of the 36 programs, there are fewer than 10 women enrolled. Twenty of the programs have five or fewer girls.

If we also take into account the strong tendency of girls to drop out when they discover that they are almost alone, we should be happy if even 100 of the 204 graduate. Compared to the 1800+ men who start the programs...

I haven't had time to look at the admission figures for other IT programs or other related engineering programs, but a good indication of the popularity of the programs with each gender is the original applicant figures from last spring. In the table below, I have divided the programs according to the classification we use on the Choose IT web, and added some other, related engineering programs for comparison.

Program (number) Women, 1st hand applicants Men, applicants 1st hand Proportion of women, 1st choice applicants
Computer/IT engineer (36) 238 2766 8,6 %
Other IT engineers, e.g. electrical, media engineering (37) 279 1376 16,9 %
Bachelor of Computer/Systems Science (52) 1148 4071 22,0 %
Other programs with IT orientation (64) 1391 3301 29,3%
Total IT programs (189) 3056 11276 21,3 %
Mechanical engineering or similar (35) 461 2080 18,1 %
Industrial economy 912 1813 33,5 %
Engineering physics 137 557 19,7 %

 

Source: Agency for Higher Education Services, http://statistik.vhs.se/

Some conclusions:

  • The further away we get from the more pure computer science degrees, the greater the proportion of women (remember, too, that only a fraction of the few girls who start technology degrees will graduate). Unfortunately, for the future of gender equality in the IT workplace, the reality is that it is the heavy technical developer roles that lead to influence and careers.
  • The proportion of girls in computer engineering programs is poor even compared to other "male" sounding engineering programs, such as mechanical engineering and engineering physics. While programs such as "design and product development" have been included under mechanical engineering, which immediately bounces the proportion of girls up to around 40% in these programs, even if we only look at the programs that are actually called "mechanical engineering", the proportion of women is higher than the computer/IT engineering programs.

So what is the problem? What is it that scares girls away from computer/IT engineering courses in particular? It is not a lack of interest in technology per se, as shown by the application figures for the other engineering courses and also confirmed by a survey that the company Skill will present shortly. In this survey, more than 100 girls studying IT courses were asked about what attracted them to the courses and what they think discourages their sisters from studying them. What is highlighted is not primarily the lack of interest in technology, but pure ignorance of what the IT industry is and that it is not part of the self-image to "do IT".

Who in the IT industry has the guts to describe what they do in a way that appeals to girls? Who has the courage to challenge the dull image of "doing IT" that the industry spreads?