Factors discouraging participation of girls in ICT education

Abstract

Despite expanding ICT job opportunities, there has been a decrease in the proportion of girls entering into ICT study, and pursuing ICT careers. This paper explores factors that discourage participation of high school girls in ICT using a modified version of the conceptual framework based on the "STEMcell" model. The modified framework was used to create an online questionnaire which gathered data from girls and boys between the ages of 15 and 17 years studying at high school. Each section of the framework used selected questions based on perceptions and attitudes to gain an insight into whether girls would be more likely to participate in ICT. The findings indicated that boys, more than girls sought advice from their family members on their future career choices. The results also showed stereotypes are still alive in girls more than boys and that girls are unlikely to follow a career in ICT. Moreover, girls more than boys disagree about ICT becoming compulsory in high school. Current number of enrolments of girls in ICT at high school lags behind that of boys and, until changes are made, girls going into the ICT industry will be in the minority.

Closing the gender gap in ICT higher education: exploring women’s motivations in pursuing ICT education

“…The stereotypes on the content of education and the future career might be the explanation for contradictory results regarding young women's perception of career possibilities in the field. In some cases, research suggests that women high school students do not perceive the ICT field as a career prospect (Morton et al, 2018). However, the opposite was reported by Corneliussen et al (2021) who argue that female high school students in Norway see ICT field as well-paid employment opportunity and career development choice.…”

“…Surprisingly, despite the ever-growing digital market and employment opportunities, the number of women pursuing ICT education and profession is decreasing (Morton et al, 2018). The number of women who studied and graduated on ICT was higher in the 80s, with a noted decrease later on (Beyer, 2014).…”

“…Women comprise only 25% of graduates in ICT related higher education (European Commission, 2023). Ample evidence of scholarly work has unraveled the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the ICT related education (e.g., Lamers and Mason, 2018;Morton et al, 2018;Corneliussen, 2020;Corneliussen, 2024). The ICT field is value-ladened (Colomo-Palacios et al, 2020), and stereotyped perceptions and biases related to the ICT education and profession are a major obstacle which women face when choosing to pursue this type of education (e.g., Wong, 2016;Corneliussen, 2020).…”

“…The prevailing discourse on ICT profession and education is built on a rather narrow and simplified view of the ICT, primarily associating it with programming and gaming. Moreover, ICT is often not recognized as a career option for women (Morton et al, 2018), an issue further exacerbated by the lack of access and identification to female role models (e.g., Morton et al, 2018;Corneliussen et al, 2019;Berry et al, 2022;Taylor-Smith et al, 2022). However, as Armstrong et al Armstrong et al (2016) argue, inclusion in the context of education is not a unitary concept, and typically requires understanding the social context within which education is embedded to be properly analyzed and addressed.…”

Video-based multimedia on learners’ attitude towards astrophysics: Gender equity and school location

“…These conceptions of female that the culture of using ICT in education is friendly to male more than female can describe why female have negative attitudes towards ICT. Furthermore, researchers revealed that female experienced less access to ICT-related tools than male [29]. The organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) argued that there is a gap between younger age groups in ICT accessibility in learning and that the male and female tend to use their access differently [30].…”