Computing Educational Programmes with more Women are more about People & less about Things

Abstract

This paper analyzes materials related to educational programmes from universities that differ significantly with regards to the percentage of women studying computing. To understand this difference better, we compare two extreme cases: the educational programme with the highest percentage of women (22%) versus the one with the lowest percentage (7%) in Denmark. Following the literature showing that there exists a correlation between gender and interest in topics distributed on the ¶EOPLE --ÞINGS spectrum, we check to what extent the promotional materials and course composition can be associated more with ¶EOPLE or rather with ÞINGS. Based on data from N=150 students who rated graphic and textual promotional materials and courses on the ¶EOPLE vs ÞINGS scale, we establish the following correlation: the programme with more women appear to be oriented significantly more towards ¶EOPLE (and less towards ÞINGS ) than the programme with less women. We hypothesize that this offers a tool to "adjust'' the gender appeal of computing educational programmes with regards to both recruitment and retention.

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