The impact of role models and representation on students' career choices
Quote from streamit admin on October 31, 2024, 11:22 amAs a discussion starter, here are some thoughts from the EUGAIN (European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics) Booklet: Best Practices From School to University.
"The underrepresentation of women in Informatics higher education and, consequently, in the Informatics industry, is largely tied to practices in primary school education. It has been reported that gender stereotypes and social expectations strongly discourage girls to consider and pursue Informatics (Szlávi and Bernát 2021; Happe and Buhnova 2022). Young women’s barriers to engagement in Informatics education and careers, however, are also linked to the classroom (Happe, Buhnova, et al. 2021; Szlávi 2021). The attitude of teachers and classmates, the curriculum and learning environment, insufficient knowledge regarding the myriad of jobs available within the IT job market, and what competencies such jobs require lead to the critically low number of girls choosing Informatics courses at university.
In this section, we introduce the significant reasons girls do not choose Informatics and the strategies and suggestions to remedy this social, educational, and economic problem.Major Reasons Behind The Problems
Recent studies and interviews conducted by EUGAIN’s working group 1 during meet-ups with initiatives helping girls with coding, show that the major reasons can be categorised under the headings of stereotypes, access, confidence, sense of belonging, and isolation topics (Happe and Buhnova 2022):
(a) Access
- The first hole in the leaky pipeline on girls’ pathway towards Informatics is linked to
the missing access to encouragement and support, together with the access to suitable
education that should build on the many different interests of girls that often span
multiple disciplines.- Lack of relatable and engaging Informatics education: Girls have less interest in
Informatics because they start to use computers later than boys, and they use them
generally for homework, socialising, research, etc. Therefore, boys already have more
experience. This makes girls stay behind boys regarding computer literacy.(b) Stereotypes
Close family and friends often direct girls away from Informatics to protect them from a
future where they cannot imagine the girls becoming successful. This shows how important
it is to help families, especially mothers, understand that software engineering can be a
great career choice for their daughters.[...]
- Lack of alternatives to stereotypes in the form of relatable role models: When girls can’t see or reach relatable role models as teachers in Informatics or successful professionals in informatics-related stereotypical images and messages can reduce girls’ sense of belonging.
(c) Confidence
When girls find themselves in the classroom, often surrounded by more experienced learners (typically boys), they feel less confident. It can be hard to fall into the category of a slow novice learner for little girls who often excel in other subjects. This leads them to leave the stage to boys at computer labs, courses, etc.
(d) Sense of Belonging
The girls who resist the earlier three challenges continue their education in Informatics and find themselves in classrooms surrounded predominantly by boys. This can make them feel they don’t belong there.
Girls need to feel safe in learning environments. If the learning environment is not femalefriendly, or perceived as hostile to their way of expressing themselves and achieving understanding, they won’t feel competent. Isolation: Isolation is a symptom of the relatively small number of female students enrolled in Informatics degree programmes.
- This can have a significant negative impact on female students when there appear to be few role models and peers (Stevenson 2020).
[...]
Best practices and Recommended actions for Universities, Research Centres and Educational Institutions:
- Role Models
- Make female role models prominent, visible, and available to female students from early in the students’ first-cycle degree education.
- Encourage outreach from women working in the IT industry as role models - invite female guest speakers from industry/academia to share their honest experiences as
undergraduates and to talk about their achievements (Convertino 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Stevenson 2020).- Increase the visibility of female peers (i.e., to other female students in the same cohort) by placing female students together in the same lab/practical group in those cases where first-year students cannot all take the same lab/practical session together due to limited resources (e.g., there is less than a 1-to-1 ratio of enrolled students to computers in a lab) (Convertino 2020; Lyon and Green 2021; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Tian 2020).
[...]"
As a discussion starter, here are some thoughts from the EUGAIN (European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics) Booklet: Best Practices From School to University.
"The underrepresentation of women in Informatics higher education and, consequently, in the Informatics industry, is largely tied to practices in primary school education. It has been reported that gender stereotypes and social expectations strongly discourage girls to consider and pursue Informatics (Szlávi and Bernát 2021; Happe and Buhnova 2022). Young women’s barriers to engagement in Informatics education and careers, however, are also linked to the classroom (Happe, Buhnova, et al. 2021; Szlávi 2021). The attitude of teachers and classmates, the curriculum and learning environment, insufficient knowledge regarding the myriad of jobs available within the IT job market, and what competencies such jobs require lead to the critically low number of girls choosing Informatics courses at university.
In this section, we introduce the significant reasons girls do not choose Informatics and the strategies and suggestions to remedy this social, educational, and economic problem.
Major Reasons Behind The Problems
Recent studies and interviews conducted by EUGAIN’s working group 1 during meet-ups with initiatives helping girls with coding, show that the major reasons can be categorised under the headings of stereotypes, access, confidence, sense of belonging, and isolation topics (Happe and Buhnova 2022):
(a) Access
- The first hole in the leaky pipeline on girls’ pathway towards Informatics is linked to
the missing access to encouragement and support, together with the access to suitable
education that should build on the many different interests of girls that often span
multiple disciplines. - Lack of relatable and engaging Informatics education: Girls have less interest in
Informatics because they start to use computers later than boys, and they use them
generally for homework, socialising, research, etc. Therefore, boys already have more
experience. This makes girls stay behind boys regarding computer literacy.
(b) Stereotypes
Close family and friends often direct girls away from Informatics to protect them from a
future where they cannot imagine the girls becoming successful. This shows how important
it is to help families, especially mothers, understand that software engineering can be a
great career choice for their daughters.
[...]
- Lack of alternatives to stereotypes in the form of relatable role models: When girls can’t see or reach relatable role models as teachers in Informatics or successful professionals in informatics-related stereotypical images and messages can reduce girls’ sense of belonging.
(c) Confidence
When girls find themselves in the classroom, often surrounded by more experienced learners (typically boys), they feel less confident. It can be hard to fall into the category of a slow novice learner for little girls who often excel in other subjects. This leads them to leave the stage to boys at computer labs, courses, etc.
(d) Sense of Belonging
The girls who resist the earlier three challenges continue their education in Informatics and find themselves in classrooms surrounded predominantly by boys. This can make them feel they don’t belong there.
Girls need to feel safe in learning environments. If the learning environment is not femalefriendly, or perceived as hostile to their way of expressing themselves and achieving understanding, they won’t feel competent. Isolation: Isolation is a symptom of the relatively small number of female students enrolled in Informatics degree programmes.
- This can have a significant negative impact on female students when there appear to be few role models and peers (Stevenson 2020).
[...]
Best practices and Recommended actions for Universities, Research Centres and Educational Institutions:
- Role Models
- Make female role models prominent, visible, and available to female students from early in the students’ first-cycle degree education.
- Encourage outreach from women working in the IT industry as role models - invite female guest speakers from industry/academia to share their honest experiences as
undergraduates and to talk about their achievements (Convertino 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Stevenson 2020). - Increase the visibility of female peers (i.e., to other female students in the same cohort) by placing female students together in the same lab/practical group in those cases where first-year students cannot all take the same lab/practical session together due to limited resources (e.g., there is less than a 1-to-1 ratio of enrolled students to computers in a lab) (Convertino 2020; Lyon and Green 2021; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Tian 2020).
[...]"