1 How gender issues can influence studying computer science - Current state and future steps - Mirjana Ivanović, Zoran Putnik, Anja Šišarica, Zoran Budimac University of Novi Sad, Serbia

2

3

4

5

6

7 Ivanović, M., Putnik, Z., Budimac, Z., Šišarica, A., Bothe, K.: “How Gender Issues Can Influence Studying Computer Science”, 1st International Conference on Computer Supported Education, Lisboa, Portugal, pp , 2009.

Presentation in a nutshell 1. Observed that the number of female students in CS started to decrease at our Department 2. Wanted to understand why 3. Designed questionnaire 4. Collected results, draw nice pie charts, … 5. Reported on that here (Anja) and in Lisbon (Zoran) It all drawn significant attention (see later), but did we really understand the problem? It turned out that we didn’t and we were forced to GO TO 3, again 8

9 Agenda Reminder on what we did earlier, why and how Reminder of some of our results (some nice pie charts) Reminder on previous conclusions Something on the mentioned attention What we wanted to do further Why we cannot report on that this year 

10 1. Reminder (what, why, how) Exploring opinions of female undergraduate CS students (Dept. of mathematics and informatics, Faculty of Science, Uni. of Novi sad) regarding: General success rate Professional confidence, ambitions and interests Level of satisfaction with the choice of studies Attitudes and beliefs towards the gender issue

11 1. Reminder (what, why, how) To understand why is it true:  Considerable lack of female students at universities worldwide, despite the supporting acts made by academic community  For example: in the period only 20% of B.A. degrees in CS in the USA were awarded to women

12 1. Reminder (what, why, how)  Often discontinue studies  Phenomenon of “the shrinking pipeline”: even though young girls could be attracted by CS, the higher level of education, the smaller is the proportion of female students Consequence: inadequate involvement of women in IT industry and research For instance: only 22% of the employees in the science related fields are female  Serbia, and our Department, are facing the same problem

13 Our example Five years ago: relationship between numbers of male and female students Now 40% female / 60% male CycleFemaleTotal number Bachelor40%450 Master33%90 Doctor20%12

14 Our example – contd. DirectionsFemale percentage TheoreticalDropping BusinessConstant TeachersNone! No significant difference in grades in ‘technical’ courses between males and females.

15 Causes (from literature) Intimidation with the male dominated nature of a field Absence of female role models Lack of respect towards female professionals in the field Lack of confidence in the abilities of female professionals Increasing number of PCs and boys bragging about themselves

16 Causes (from literature) Social pressure not to study CS Fear of combination of work and family life in IT sector being problematic Women are more attracted to applications that benefit society than in programming itself, therefore, tend to lose interest when this aspiration is not satisfied Like mathematics, not technical subjects Not “ambitious”, more commited and more loyal, like secure positions… Is this true (in our case)?

17 1. Reminder (what, why, how) Field study / questionnaire June 2008, 116 undergraduate female students of all CS directions present at our department  85% of all female students 20 questions; combined examination techniques: 1. Descriptive answers 2. Multiple choice answers 3. Responses given on a Likert scale of 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree)

18 2. Reminder on some results

19 Expression of personal ambitions regarding career Statement Mean value Standard Deviation Marks during studies are important to me I believe I am about to have a successful career I am worried about further course of my career after I complete my studies

20 Expression of attitude towards curriculum Statement Mean value Standard Deviation I am generally satisfied with my choice of studies I feel more comfortable with mathematical courses, rather than with CS courses Studies positively effected my intellectual development and interests !

21 Expression of attitude towards the gender issue Statement Mean value Standard Deviation Professionally, I feel completely equal to my male colleagues Concern regarding the lack of women in IT is justified Stereotypes regarding women in IT do not manifest in real life !

22 What had the greatest influence on the choice of your studies?

23 Is IT a suitable field for women? !

24 Is it possible to have both successful career and family life? !

25 Average success rates June 2008 Year / Average mark 6,00-7,007,00-8,008,00-9,00 9,00- 10,00 Unknown 1st11.11%27.78%33.33%5.56%22.22% 2nd %31.58%- 3rd-64.29%35.71%-- 4th-33.33%44.44%22.22%-

26 Interest in taken courses 1 st year2 nd year3 rd year4 th year The least preferred courses Math. Logic and Algebra, Analysis, Financial Mathematics Data Structures and Algorithms, Math. Logic and Algebra, Analysis, Linear Algebra Data Structures and Algorithms, Numerical Analysis Differential Equations, Linear Algebra The most preferred courses Web design, Introduction to E- business, Data Structures and Algorithms, Introduction to Programming Computer Organization, Object-Oriented Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms, Web Design, Data Bases Data Bases, Web Design, E-learning, Information systems Data Bases, Information Systems, Object- Oriented Programming !

27 How do you imagine your job position 10 years from now? Lack of ambition?

28 3. Reminder on previous conclusions Surprisingly high level of self-awareness and confidence Participants expressed serious and ambitious attitudes regarding their career objectives, feeling professionally equal to their male colleagues, with their marks to prove those claims Present satisfaction with the choice of studies

29 Conclusion - our view Even though the number of female students at our department is dropping each year, those who manage to complete their studies, prove to be as competitive and skillful as their male peers Technical skills are (after all) gender-blind?

30 Conclusions – what we achieved At least, we now know our female students better than before First step in understanding the problem (→ predict?, control?) We did not confirm that the general beliefs are true  ‘hate’ mathematics, competent in technical courses, high grades, feel good about themselves and studies, do not see any problems… We did confirm:  Lack of ambition We (still) do not know why the number of female students is dropping → new questionnaire, → high-schools, → male students, → all cycles, → some inferential statistics

31 4. On mentioned attention During meeting of project coordinators (Berlin, May 2009): Besides: “→ new questionnaire, → high-schools, → male students, → all cycles, → some inferential statistics”, Do also: → region, → Germany Invitation to give presentation

32 4. … Invitation to give presentation

33 4. … Questions and suggestions arise at EWM  Exploring opinions of female in secondary schools √  Exploring opinions of male in secondary schools and at faculty level √  Make joint research (colleagues from Varaždin, Croatia offered cooperation) and compare results with other environments in region √ [Editor-in-Chief of Journal “Informatics in Education” invited us to submit extended version of paper in her journal]

34 5. What we wanted to do further We designed a new questionnaire  More specific questions added (to help us to see / clarify correlations)  Males included  All three cycles included Klaus sent a number of links from their Dept. dealing with the issue of ‘women in informatics’ Sent the questionnaire to all partners of DAAD project

6. Why we cannot report on that today? Because no one sent us the filled questionnaires , except  Us (130)  Ivan Luković (7)  Albania (?) We shall wait for the beginning of the new semester. If nothing new happens, we shall change the research question and continue 35

36 Questions Why do we care at all about percentage of female students in CS?  Why shouldn’t we?  Everyone else cares, so we should care as well.  There is no hard evidence that CS should be a male dominated field → we should ask ourselves what is happening  There are studies that prove that overall performance of the group is better if female/male percentage in the group is balanced.