Addressing the Increasing Gender Gap in ICT

Abstract

Mostly girls who enroll in Computer Science/Information Technology programs; either change their field after getting the degree or quit it before completion of the degree, which is a great loss for our country’s socio-economic development, and this becomes the reason of female underrepresentation in the tech market. To find out the reasons for girls’ hesitation in choosing ICT as a career in Pakistan, we conducted a need analysis (base study) on a sample size of n=167. The participants of the base study were female participants enrolled in public school students of Grade 7-10 from different districts in Punjab, female students at the undergraduate level, a few housewives and some working women. Factors extracted of the study were that females lack self-efficacy and confidence that they can perform better than boys. MS office is part of the curriculum at primary levels but 31.7% of the students mentioned that they have never used a spreadsheet. An intervention was designed based on the factors that we found out as a result of the base study to find out the change the perception of female students of secondary level and the females studying at the university level. This research includes sample from two settings i.e. School Students n=234 and University Students n=209. There is a strong relationship between female’s access to technology and their career choices. All the girls at university level own a mobile but 74% of them still face restriction to use mobiles from their parents. Results showed that students in higher secondary level have an enthusiasm to learn technology, but they do not get access and guidance which creates a leaky pipeline in the tech market. We need to focus these initial stages of females education to develop self-confidence, interest and motivation as females lacks interest in learning technical skills gradually.