Female Under-Representation in Computing Education and Industry - A Survey of Issues and Interventions <s> A. Computing Education and Industry <s> The proportions of Computer Science (CS) graduates who are women has been declining in the last fifteen years. At a time when the demand for computer programmers and systems analysts has been increasing, why are women becoming a smaller proportion of those enrolling in CS programs? This article presents a categorization by educational stages of the research into this topic, and an evaluation of the generalizability of findings to broader contexts. The categorization shows that the most extensive research on women in computing is done at the post-secondary stage, and uses students as non-randomly selected subjects. These studies are non-comprehensive, but where similar results are found in a number of studies, the findings are supported. The emphasis in research focuses on structural factors at the elementary stage, but by the post-secondary stage the emphasis is more likely to be on social psychological factors. <s> BIB001 </s> Female Under-Representation in Computing Education and Industry - A Survey of Issues and Interventions <s> A. Computing Education and Industry <s> This study investigated Greek high school students' intentions and motivation towards and against pursuing academic studies in Computer Science (CS), the influence of the family and the scholastic environment on students' career choices, students' perceptions of CS and the Information Technology (IT) profession as well as students' attendance at CS courses at school, computer use in the home and self-efficacy beliefs regarding computers. Gender differences were examined with a view to identifying factors that may affect boys' and girls' career choices. The participants were 358 students of both sexes who completed an anonymous questionnaire. The data analysis showed that girls are less likely than boys to pursue a CS degree, and when they do so, it is mainly because of extrinsic reasons rather than personal interest in CS. Lack of opportunities for early familiarization with computing in the home and the scholastic environment is the factor that mainly differentiates boys' and girls' motivation against studying CS, having a greater impact on girls. Misconceptions of CS were detected in students of both genders. Girls view CS as a self-referencing, machine- and programming-oriented discipline to a greater extent than boys do, and hold less positive views of the IT profession. Boys view CS as more human- and application-oriented than girls do. They also have greater computer self-efficacy and more sex-stereotypical views of CS and IT as male domains. Appropriate actions to increase girls' interest and participation in CS studies are proposed according to the findings. <s> BIB002
The evidence of the problem will be reviewed from both the education and industry perspective. This will provide a contextual insight into the nature of the problem. An analysis of research work on the participation rates of females in computing education and careers indicate that the level is low in many parts of the world  ,  .This trend has a history dating back to the early 1980s. Prior to this time there was a healthy level of female representation in both computing education and industry. In 1960, 65% of computer programmers in the United States of America (USA) were women and historically women have been highly influential in the field of computing [36] . Empirical studies have shown that the numbers of females in computer science education and careers decrease progressively from the early stages of secondary education until later stages of education BIB001 , BIB002 . The key factors that have been forwarded as potential explanations for this trend will be explored further in this paper. The progressive decline of females in computing education from secondary education stage leading to tertiary education is described by Gurer and Camp as -the pipeline shrinkage problem‖ [36] . This pipeline effect has been identified as a worldwide issue as data collected from many parts of the world presents a broadly similar picture although there are some exceptions in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, where the female representation in computing education is 50% and above  . In the United Kingdom (UK) statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, indicates that the proportion of female computer science undergraduates was 18% as at 2011  . This percentage has reduced significantly from 28% in A similar picture is presented in the USA in a related study by  , where it was shown that the share of bachelors' degrees awarded in the USA to females in the past two decades increased in almost all major science and engineering fields except in computing. Historically, science and engineering has suffered from female under-representation and specific measures have been implemented to reduce the effect. In another extensive study of the participation level of females in computing education by Galpin, it was shown that this trend pervades Western Europe, Southern Europe, Scandinavia and Africa  . Galpin summarized the findings in 36 countries at tertiary education level as -generally, participation is low -most countries fall in the 10-40% range with a few below 10% and a few above 40%‖. The under-representation of females in computing education contrasts with the level of their representation and achievement in other subject areas as shown by the European Key Data on Education in 2009. It clearly presents a trend of a generally higher level of female achievement in education. The number of women who gained upper secondary qualifications was greater than the corresponding number of men in all European countries, the only exception being Turkey. Furthermore, empirical data on all countries of the EU-27 shows that 60% of tertiary education graduates are women. In some member states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Portugal), the number of women undergraduates outnumber men by the ratio 2:1. During the period 2002-2006, there were approximately three women tertiary education graduates for every two men and this proportion was relatively stable in most member states  . A similar picture is presented by the UK Royal Society   . Irrespective of this academic capability and higher attainment levels the percentage of females taking up computing at Advanced Level is on a progressive decline from 12% in 2004 to 8% in 2011  ,  . Unsurprisingly, the decline in education correlates with the female under-representation in the computing industry in spite of the improving employment opportunities in this field. Employment statistics indicate increased employment opportunities in the industry. Lazowska  commented -among all occupations in all fields of science and engineering, computing occupations are projected to account for nearly 60% of all job growth between now and 2018‖. This projection of opportunities is also echoed by the UK department for Business Innovation and Skills. The department forecasts that the computing industry is set to grow at four times the rate of other professions  . However, The UK Resource Centre (UKRC) indicated that as at 2008, the representation of women in the computing industry was only 14.4%  . Computer science as a subject is a fundamental source of talent for the technology sector and it is equally of immense economic value  . The progressive drop-off in the uptake of computing degrees especially amongst females has been identified as a great concern for education and industry.