The under‐representation of women entering into information and communication technology (ICT) programmes is a long‐standing problem. While ICT continues to be increasingly accepted and integrated into everyday life, gender stereotypes prevail in ICT turning female students away from ICT as an occupation. Based on existing literature on factors influencing girls' career choices and on an empirical qualitative study in three schools in Australia, a conceptualisation of the influence of middle‐school experiences on girls' ICT study and career choices is presented. This conceptualisation is used as a guide to evaluate a recent intervention programme aimed at promoting ICT study and work opportunities to middle‐school girls. A number of recommendations for future programmes are provided, highlighting the need to study how subcultures that support ICT career choices develop and are supported in Australian schools.

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This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of the perceptions of information and communication technology (ICT) as a field of study and work in German secondary schools. A total of 160 students from five secondary schools in Lower Saxony participated in the study in February 2007, and four teachers of the students were interviewed. The investigation is part of the research carried out by the authors within the Griffith University Women in Information Technology (WinIT) project, which has been studying the problem of low female participation since 1995. In this paper we discuss German school students' (male and female) and their teachers' views of ICT, its use at school and home, their influences in using technology, and their ideas about working with technology in the future. We drew on the challenges faced and opportunities available to teachers in the study to put this in context. We found that many senior secondary students have not decided what they want to do when they finish school, suggesting that the environment is ripe for them to receive relevant and useful information that may help them to choose to study tertiary ICT courses. By dispelling negative ICT perceptions and allowing students to make an informed choice as to whether to take up a career in ICT, we can hopefully encourage more students into this ever-growing and exciting industry.

In Australia, the participation rate for females in information and communication technology (ICT) courses in secondary, vocational. and higher education is significantly lower than that of males, and is decreasing (Thorp, 2004). In Queensland, Australia, only 20% (at most) of ICT students and employees are female, with the IT first preferences for tertiary admission down 22% for 2004 enrolments (Thorp, 2003). This downturn is in line with the trend in other Western countries and reflects the general lack of interest in ICT education amongst adolescents. Recent Australian research confirms the importance of role models and mentors when adolescents are considering career options (Clayton, 2005). The importance of implementing sustainable strategies, such as mentoring programs, to rectify this imbalance cannot be understated. Jepson and Peri (2002) believe that mentoring programs should commence at middle and high school. Early mentoring programs are valuable as girls have fewer ICT role models and mentors in the classroom, industry and computer games (Carey, 2001). Mentors in these programs need to provide an accurate portrayal of the broad range of careers available in the ICT field (Klawe, 2002). To date, a number of mentoring programs and intervention activities have been and continue to be undertaken in Queensland. This article presents three different mentoring programs the authors have been involved in and discusses the challenges involved in implementing these strategies. The first two programs discussed are for high school students and the third is for university students in ICT degree programs (von Hellens, Beekhuyzen, & Nielsen, 2005). Adding to the complexity of this problem, funding to implement programs aimed at increasing female participation in ICTs may be difficult to justify due to the problems of measuring the effectiveness in achieving this goal. Australian researchers recognize this problem and are concerned about the absence of ongoing evaluation of programs to encourage girls into ICTs (Lang, 2003). While this chapter makes recommendations for implementing new strategies based on the experiences discussed, more work needs to be done on how to evaluate the efficacy of ongoing and future strategies.

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