Young Women and the Culture of Software Engineering

Abstract

In² an attempt to overcome the problems associated with the shortfall in 18 year olds and the related under-recruitment to science and technology courses in further and higher education, employers, trainers and educators have all become interested in the possibility of recruiting women into these areas. The last decade has produced numerous initiatives to encourage women into science, engineering and technology, of which WISE and WIT are two notable examples. Despite these efforts women still represent only a minority of participants in these areas of education and employment. More precisely, they continue to be segregated, within these fields, into typical “women’s jobs”[EITB 84, Dain 88]. Researchers have thus turned their attention towards improving our understanding of the barriers women face in taking up engineering and technological work and the last decade has seen a growth in research in this area.