Computer science club for girls and boys – a survey study on gender differences

Vrieler, Tina; Nylén, Aletta; Cajander, Åsa

doi:10.1080/08993408.2020.1832412

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…However, we did not find explicit stereotypes for the statement that programmers like computers and have little other interests. No gender differences were found within this stereotype, which is in line with a study that found that both genders have similar associations to the word 'Computer Science' including the association 'game' [39]. The association of programming and video gaming might limit children who do not have an interest in video gaming to consider a career in IT.…”

Section: Interests Stereotypesupporting

confidence: 82%

Children’s Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes on the Gender, Social Skills, and Interests of a Computer Scientist

Wit

Hermans

Aivaloglou

2021

Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

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Motivation Only 27% of computer and mathematical scientists in the United States and 18% of IT specialists in Europe are women. The under-representation of women in the field of Computer Science is, among other things, influenced by stereotypes of computer scientists. These stereotypes include being male, asocial and having an (obsessive) interest in computers. Even though stereotypical beliefs can develop at an early age, research on children's stereotypes of computer scientists is sparse and inconclusive.Objectives Stereotypes we hold can be implicit or unconscious beliefs, or explicit or conscious beliefs. In this study, we focus on children's implicit and explicit stereotypes regarding computer scientists' gender, social skills and interests. We also study whether explaining what a computer scientist does affects these stereotypes.Method We study the implicit stereotypes through the reducedlength Child Implicit Association Test and the explicit stereotypes through self-reported absolute and relative Likert scale questions. We gathered data on 564 children between the age of 7 and 18 who were visiting a science museum. The participants in the experiment group (n=352) watch a video of either a man or woman explaining what a computer scientist does at the start of the study.Results We found weak implicit stereotypical beliefs on computer scientists' social skills and moderate implicit stereotypical beliefs on computer scientists' interests. We also found explicit stereotypes on computer scientists' gender, social skills and interests. Measuring the effects of the intervention, we found significant differences between the control and experiment group in their explicit stereotypes on computer scientists' social skills.Discussion The amount of scientific work on children's stereotypes regarding computer scientists is still limited. Applying the reduced-length Child Implicit Association Test to measure children's stereotypes on computer scientists has, to our knowledge, not been done before. Understanding children's stereotypes and how to tackle them contributes to closing the gender gap in Computer Science.

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Section: Interests Stereotypesupporting

confidence: 82%

Children’s Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes on the Gender, Social Skills, and Interests of a Computer Scientist

Wit

Hermans

Aivaloglou

2021

Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

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“…In order to find out what the latest research has revealed about what keeps women from the IT field, a dozen review papers, published in the past two years, were selected. [9,10,11,12,13,14] After examining these recent papers, each dedicated to review the latest literature about young women's barriers, we can differentiate four basic obstacles that account for girls' scarcity in IT: social, selfefficacy, educational, and labour market factors.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most fundamental obstacle that girls face is gender stereotyping, that is, a binary world view that divides the social world into feminine vs. masculine domains and characteristics [15] connecting IT, and generally, STEM 1 to masculinity. [9,10,11,12,13,14] Gender-based social stereotypes can affect how young women's closest environment relates to their career interests, such as their families. It is especially fathers' and male siblings' attitudes that were shown to influence girls' choices.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Barriers, Role Models, and Diversity – Women in IT

Szlávi¹

2021

CEJNTREP

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Despite the growing need for IT professionals all around Europe, women are still severely underrepresented in IT-related fields. According to Eurostat, female IT specialists constitute only 16.5% of the workforce in the EU28 countries. Gender imbalance, however, is conspicuous already in higher education: only 23% of students majoring in IT are women. The reasons why girls are reluctant to consider a career in IT are complex. Based on the analysis of recent literature review papers about young women's barriers, we can differentiate four basic obstacles that keep girls from IT: social, educational, self-efficacy, and labour market factors. In order to overcome these obstacles, the necessary tools are the presence of role models, the promotion of diverse IT paths, and inclusive teaching environments. The present paper aims to introduce a study conducted within the settings of a non-degree, tertiary Computer Science program, with the usual scarcity of female students and a high dropout rate. As part of their program, students also need to attend an interdisciplinary course, in which they are exposed to an inclusive teaching environment, the presentations of role models, and diverse career paths. Before, during, and after the course, students were asked to reflect on the issues of barriers, diversity, and role models, which were analysed in a quantitative and qualitative manner. As a follow up, female graduates of the program, already working as software developers, were surveyed about the same questions, in order to explore what women who do end up in IT careers share.

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“…While initial enthusiasm for programming is essential, learning outcomes are equally important as they determine the resulting computing-related self-concept and perceived self-efficacy [41,47]. These are prerequisites for a longer-term interest in CS and whether learners consider themselves suitable for studies in CS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-driven Analysis of Gender Differences and Similarities in Scratch Programs

Graßl

Geldreich

2021

The 16th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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Block-based programming environments such as Scratch are an essential entry point to computer science. In order to create an effective learning environment that has the potential to address the gender imbalance in computer science, it is essential to better understand gender-specific differences in how children use such programming environments. In this paper, we explore gender differences and similarities in Scratch programs along two dimensions: In order to understand what motivates girls and boys to use Scratch, we apply a topic analysis using unsupervised machine learning for the first time on Scratch programs, using a dataset of 317 programs created by girls and boys in the range of 8-10 years. In order to understand how they program for these topics, we apply automated program analysis on the code implemented in these projects. We find that, in-line with common stereotypes, girls prefer topics that revolve around unicorns, celebrating, dancing and music, while boys tend to prefer gloomy topics with bats and ghouls, or competitive ones such as soccer or basketball. Girls prefer animations and stories, resulting in simpler control structures, while boys create games with more loops and conditional statements, resulting in more complex programs. Considering these differences can help to improve the learning outcomes and the resulting computing-related self-concepts, which are prerequisites for developing a longer-term interest in computer science. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Gender; Computing education; • Software and its engineering → Software development techniques.

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Computer science club for girls and boys – a survey study on gender differences

Cited by 19 publications

References 61 publications

Children’s Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes on the Gender, Social Skills, and Interests of a Computer Scientist

Children’s Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes on the Gender, Social Skills, and Interests of a Computer Scientist

Barriers, Role Models, and Diversity – Women in IT

Data-driven Analysis of Gender Differences and Similarities in Scratch Programs

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