Representativeness of women in postgraduate programs in computer science in Brazil

Abstract

From the patriarchal gender culture, inequities emerge that are manifested in social and labor relations. Women still lead to disparities in participation and production of a scientific nature around the world, being more evident in technological areas. This paper presents an exploratory descriptive analysis of postgraduate teaching in Computer Science in Brazil, addressing aspects of representativeness by gender in that area. The results revealed that, despite the programs to encourage the participation of women in the areas of technology, in the last 15 years there has been a significant reduction in the proportionality of women in postgraduate teaching in Computer Science in Brazil. In addition, it opens discussions on issues of interest related to factors such as the predominant age group of women in the area, 40-69 years, suggesting research on the impact of other factors on active participation, such as motherhood, for example.

Unveiling the Missing Link: Women in Stem Leadership – A Comprehensive Review

“…At graduation, men significantly outnumber women, especially in physics, engineering, and computer science (Adams et al, 2022;Eaton et al, 2020;Freeman et al, 2019). This gender gap persists in graduate education and the professional workplace (Cordeiro et al, 2020;García-Peñalvo et al, 2022). Cultural factors, not just inherent aptitude, contribute to girls' improved math scores (Cordeiro et al, 2020;Kärkkäinen & Joo, 2019).…”

“…This gender gap persists in graduate education and the professional workplace (Cordeiro et al, 2020;García-Peñalvo et al, 2022). Cultural factors, not just inherent aptitude, contribute to girls' improved math scores (Cordeiro et al, 2020;Kärkkäinen & Joo, 2019).…”

“…System administration duties, such as managing and playing online computer games in the house or fixing networking errors at home, are arguably more likely to be carried out by men (Garr-Schultz et al, 2023). On the other hand, learning how to code might be a talent that is better studied in a class where there may be more opportunities for both men and women (Cordeiro et al, 2020).…”

Gender Representation in Literature: Analysis of Characters' Physical Descriptions

“…Analyzing gender representation in literature is crucial as it plays a significant role in shaping societal perceptions and reinforcing gender stereotypes [Adukia et al 2022b;Hoyle et al 2019]. While previous studies have examined gender dynamics in various domains, such as films [Khadilkar et al 2022], video games [Kohler et al 2021], and scientific communities [Cordeiro et al 2020;Pizzol et al 2022], literature remains relatively unexplored in this context. Existing research has predominantly focused on qualitative analyses, delving into aspects like gendered body language [ermáková and Mahlberg 2020], characterization, binary notions [Cheng 2020], and gender hierarchy [Jockers and Kirilloff 2016].…”