Rebooting Gender Diversity in IT Around the World Will Take a Joint-Effort.
Rebooting gender diversity in Information Technology careers around the world will take a joint-effort by industry, academe, and community according to QUT’s Associate Professor Peta Wyeth.
Associate Professor Wyeth is an expert in computer human interaction, and the Academic Program Director for IT degrees at QUT.
“Under representation of women in technology is a global issue.
“The US saw a drastic decline aligned with the advent of the home computer.
“Women made up 37 per cent of US computer science students in 1984–1985 but only 17.6 per cent in 2010–2011.
“In Australia, female representation in Information Technology courses dropped almost 10 per cent from 25 per cent in 2001 to around 16 per cent in 2015,” Associate Professor Wyeth said.
Getting girls interested in IT and keeping them enrolled in university courses were the top two present challenges, according to Associate Professor Wyeth.
“QUT is non-partisan on this issue. We work with Griffith University and University of Queensland colleagues to develop female-oriented programs and look for guidance from other institutions already achieving success.”
Current retention strategies combine a range of curricular and co-curricular activities ranging from increasing pre-university student awareness of IT careers, to offering university scholarships, positive course experiences and support outside the classroom.
QUT offers six Women in Technology merit scholarships valued at $6,000 each to new students.
It also encourages peer support and social groups like Women in Technology (WIT) and Girls in Engineering Making Statements (GEMS) for enrolled students and alumni.
Rethinking the structure of unit teamwork during the three-year IT course has also improved the student experience, says Associate Professor Wyeth.
“Isolating females in a group doesn’t work. It’s not a good experience for them.
“We try to include at least two females per group and avoid having one dominant gender unless it’s an all-female or all-male group.
“The confidence of girls has increased in all female groups.
Addressing unconscious bias also aims to align student conduct to the expectations of professional practice.
“We monitor communication through course-specific channels and address comments against women quickly by working through professional practice with students, and the way they should behave,” Associate Professor Wyeth said.
QUT works with industry to actively pursue new strategies to encourage females into IT careers.
Gender diversity was a focus of discussion during the QUT IT Industry Advisory Group meeting in November 2017.
“The Group identified a range of new strategies designed to promote IT to female high school students and produce positive outcomes for female IT graduates,” Associate Professor Wyeth said.
“Industry is looking for the different perspectives that arise once you get diversity in the workforce and drives demand for more females in IT roles.
Earlier and more regular exposure to IT studies and careers is on the women in technology agenda.
“One of the barriers to entry is that girls don’t know what it is to be an IT professional in 2017,” Associate Professor Wyeth said.
“Girls don’t realise a lot of the time that IT involves a lot of talking to people, creativity and solving problems. It’s not all working alone at a computer.
“We help them explore different IT roles via events that give them access to industry.
“We’re trying to increase student exposure to IT during school years through teachers.
“QUT is working on a new IT specialisation for Education students, to provide pre-service training to future teachers.
“Dedicated and interested teachers can really make a difference to how students view technology and a career in IT.
QUT also delivers an annual two-day program on campus for Year 10 female students to gain hands-on IT experience.
Since 2001 the program has grown to host more than 600 girls from over 60 Queensland schools.
A series of eight IT-focused industry talks throughout the year, as well as speed-networking sessions for students, and IT and games professionals helped open dialogue.
“All the things we do, the more visible it is the more momentum we will have increasing the representation of women in IT.
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QUT offers Information Technology courses through the Science and Engineering Faculty.
QUT supports a number of scholarships, programs and sponsorships encouraging women in IT and other technical fields.
· Women in Technology Merit Scholarship
· Women in Technology student club and social media
· Women in Engineering Network alumni group
QUT is also a sponsor of the Women in Technology peak representative body.
