Educational interventions and female enrollment in IT degrees

Abstract

DESPITE INCREASING AWARENESS and efforts made to attract women to computing, they are still poorly represented in information technology (IT) careers.16 The number of females graduating with an IT degree has consistently declined since 1984 when women were 34% of computer science graduates and they currently account for less than 20% of IT graduates in many countries.8,14,15 These figures are replicated in the IT industry where women currently constitute a small part of the workforce-24% in the U.S., 18% in the U.K., and 28% in Australia.5,6 This lack of diversity in IT has repercussions for organizations and for society.