Women equal men in computing skill, but are less confident
Why it matters
With a rapid expansion of employment in STEM areas, the shortage of qualified labor has risen to the level ofnational importance. Yet the proportion ofwomen in STEM careers remains around 24%even though women make up almost 50% of the overall workforce. The causes of thisgender gapare often attributed tocultural and institutional biases against women in technology fields, andgovernments and other institutionshave made significant efforts to reduce this gap.
What still isn’t known
No one knows for sure why women with demonstrably the same computing skills as men are less confident. This lack of confidence has been found in other STEM-related areas. For example, one study of university students found that among men and women who performed equally well in mathematics courses,women perceived themselves to be significantly worse at maththan their male counterparts. Another study that focused on the adoption of mobile learning technology shows, while the gender gap has all but disappeared, there is still a significant gap when it comes tohow women perceive their confidence with this technologyversus how men perceive it. Some research found thattechnical skills were more consistently stereotyped by both men and womenthan were nontechnical skills. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for lack of female confidence so that effective mitigation approaches can be put in place.
What’s next
Many havemade the case thatcompanies need better participation of women in the STEM workforcefor greater innovation and productivity. These efforts have had some success, but other avenues are needed to promote STEM careers to women and help them to believe in their abilities.
To address this issue, secondary schools and universities are promotingcomputing careers to young women, while tech companies have made concerted efforts to promote and hire more women for high-profile jobs involving technology.
We will continue to work on understanding how to narrow the gender gap and explore ways to increase female participation in computer fields.
TheResearch Briefis a short take about interesting academic work.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyMatthew J. Liberatore, John F. Connelly Chair in Management at the Villanova School of Business,Villanova UniversityandWilliam Wagner, Associate Professor of Accountancy & Information Systems,Villanova Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists.An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
