Abstract
Lack of diversity, and specifically, gender diversity, is one of the key problems that both technological companies and academia are facing these days. Moreover, recent studies show that the number of female students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related disciplines have been decreasing in the last twenty years, while the number of women resigning from technological job positions remains unacceptably high. As members of a higher education institution, we foresee that working towards increasing and retaining the number of female students enrolled in STEM disciplines can help to alleviate part of the challenges faced by women in STEM fields. In this paper, we first review the main barriers and challenges that women encounter in their professional STEM careers through different age stages. Next, we focus on the special case of the information theory field, discussing the potential of gendered innovation, and whether it can be applied in the Information Theory case. The working program developed by the School of Engineering at the University of Valencia (ETSE-UV), Spain, which aims at decreasing the gender diversity gap, is then presented and recommendations for practice are given. This program started in 2011 and it encompasses Bachelor, Master and PhD levels. Four main actions are implemented: Providing institutional encouragement and support, increasing the professional support network, promoting and supporting the leadership, and increasing the visibility of female role models. To assess the impact of these actions, a chi-square test of independence is included to evaluate whether there is a significant effect on the percentage of enrolled female students. The percentage of graduated female students in the information and Communications Technology Field is also positioned with respect to other universities and the Spanish reference value. This analysis establishes that, in part, this program has helped to achieve higher female graduation rates, especially among Bachelor students, as well as increasing the number of top-decision positions held by faculty women.
Highlights
The information and communications technology (ICT) sector has been growing at a quick pace for the last twenty years
This analysis establishes that, in part, this program has helped to achieve higher female graduation rates, especially among Bachelor students, as well as increasing the number of top-decision positions held by faculty women
To the best of our knowledge, this program is a unique initiative in Spain in the sense that (i) it started with the beginning of Bologna compliant bachelor degrees (2011) and (ii) it goes beyond the formal requirement of an equality plan definition, encompassing the three dimensions where the ETSE-UV can apply some influence: Students in the years prior to the University, students already enrolled in STEM disciplines, and new graduates in STEM branches
Summary
The information and communications technology (ICT) sector has been growing at a quick pace for the last twenty years. The ICT sector demands large numbers of graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and its employees are usually well paid In this challenging environment, one may expect the sector to take advantage of as much brain power, creativity, and knowledge as possible. Women represent 33% of the researchers in the European Union, with a larger gender imbalance (less than 40% proportion) in the fields of engineering and technology and natural sciences [3] Considering these numbers, it can be seen why increasing diversity in working teams in all professional stages has been a key issue for technological companies, as well as for academia. Less than 0.5% of girls would like to be working in the ICT sector, while this percentage increases to 5% of boys With this perspective, some studies even suggest that the STEM gender gap starts from inborn differences between sexes regarding STEM aptitudes. Since the gender representation gap in STEM disciplines cannot be related to a matter of aptitudes, and it has been traced back to primary school, the vision is that we are dealing with a multiple factor problem, where several actors would need to impact at different age stages, as reflected in the following subsections
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