[EUGAIN] Booklet: Best Practices From School to University

Acknowledgement This publication is based upon work from COST Action EUGAIN CA19122 (European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). www.cost.eu EUGAIN features more than 160 members from over 45 countries, including 5 non-European ones. Its main aim is to improve gender balance in Informatics through the creation and strengthening of a truly multi-cultural European network of academics working at the forefront of the efforts in their countries, institutions and research communities. It builds on their knowledge, experiences, struggles, successes, and failures, learning and sharing what has worked and how it could be transferred to other institutions and countries. Informatics Europe, the Grant Holder institution of EUGAIN COST Action, unites and empowers the Education & Research Informatics community across Europe. It connects over 50,000 researchers from 200+ member institutions spanning 30+ countries. The organisation advocates for shared priorities and supports policy making in Education, Research and the Social Impact of informatics in Europe. EUGAIN builds upon the groundwork laid by the Informatics Europe Women in Informatics Research and Education (WIRE) Working Group, which has since evolved into the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group. More information: www.informatics-europe.org COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. Authors •Angela Nebot Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain •Anna Szl´ avi Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway •Chris Staff South East Technological University, Carlow, Ireland •Eliot Bytyci University of Prishtina, Kosovo •Eylem Erkan is¸ler Ba¸skent University, T¨urkiye •Kai Marquardt Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany •Keara Barrett South East Technological University, Carlow, Ireland •Lucia Happe Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany •Monica Landoni Universit`a della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland •Nora Pireci Sejdiu St. Kliment Ohridski University, North Macedonia •¨ Ozge Mısırlı Eskisehir Osmangazi University, T¨urkiye •Rukiye Altın Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany •Zeynep S¸ahin Timar Karadeniz Technical University, T¨urkiye Contents Introduction 1 How can we attract more girls to Informatics: problems and strategies 3 Best practices in primary school curriculum to encourage female students: in class and after school activities 9 Recruiting female students 15 Retaining first-year bachelor female students 18 Conclusion 23 Introduction Data on gender distribution in education, employment, and career shows that Informatics is a male-dominated sector. Although technology is similarly available to adults and children of all genders, women remain under-represented in both academia and industry careers related to Informatics. The different roles that families and societies impose on individuals based on gender may be considered the primary reason for the under-representation of women in the field of Informatics. The ongoing representation of women in Informatics is unsatisfactory, particularly in ensuring the realisation of gendered innovations that address the needs of all citizens. The low percentage of female employees working in the technical departments of the largest technology companies, for example, eBay, Twitter, and Google can be one of the indicators of how they are represented in the field. For example, according to the Statista report, 58% of the employees in the technology department of e-Bay are male (Gelder 2023; Dixon 2024; Bianchi 2023). Similar numbers for Twitter and Google are 67.1% and 75%, respectively. These gender ratios show that, despite the availability of tools and technology that families provide for their kids and/or the equal possibilities provided to pupils in schools, this scenario has not been mirrored in women’s jobs. Families’ behaviours, attitudes, and perspectives on gender stereotypes are crucial indicators of their children’s participation in any activity (Simpkins, Davis-Kean, and Eccles 2005; Vekiri and Chronaki 2008). It is possible to say that the different support or attitudes of families between genders will have an effective impact on their children’s education and even their careers. Even though the financial opportunities offered to children of different genders are the same, and technology is similarly available to adults and children of all genders, still (Eccles 2015) states that parents spend more time with their sons than with their daughters engaging in technology-related situations. The first barrier encountered by girls on their way to entering the world of Informatics is at the school level. According to the literature, female students frequently assume they are not good enough and are less experienced than their male counterparts. Therefore, they disregard Informatics as not being appealing to them. This negative attitude is a consequence of entrenched gender stereotyping in society and family where Informatics is considered a male discipline. We argue that starting to work on girls’ attitudes toward technology and triggering their curiosity and passion for Informatics from early education is a way to foster changes leading to a better gender balance in Informatics. The number of women in the Informatics field will increase naturally if female students in the first stage of formal education (primary and secondary school) are better supported and actively encouraged to consider Informatics as a rewarding and satisfactory future career. In this booklet, we have highlighted issues, obstacles, best practices for attracting more girls to Informatics, and recommendations for enlisting and keeping female students to assist in their efforts to implement initiatives to attract more girls to Informatics. Note: We opted for a gender-sensitive bibliography style: to increase visibility we have cited women and men by including their first name in full. 1 References Bianchi, Tiago (2023). Distribution of Google employees worldwide in 2023, by gender and department. Research report. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/311805/ google-employee-gender-department-global/. Accessed: 2024-03-02. Dixon, Stacy Jo (2024). Twitter: global corporate demography 2021, by gender and department. Research report. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/313567/twitteremployee-gender-department-global/. Accessed: 2024-03-02. Eccles, Jacquelynne Sue (July 2015). “Gendered Socialization of STEM Interests in the Family”. In: International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology 7.2, pp. 116–132. url:https: //genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/419. Gelder, Koen van (2023). eBay: global corporate demography 2016-2022, by gender. Research report. Statista. https ://www .statista .com /statistics /315057 /ebay - employeegender-global/. Accessed: 2024-03-02. Simpkins, Sandra D., Pamela E. Davis-Kean, and Jacquelynne Sue Eccles (2005). “Parents’ Socializing Behavior and Children’s Participation in Math, Science, and Computer Outof-School Activities”. In: Applied Developmental Science 9.1, pp. 14–30. doi:10 . 1207 / s1532480xads0901\_3. Vekiri, Ioanna and Anna Chronaki (Nov. 2008). “Gender issues in technology use: Perceived social support, computer self-efficacy and value beliefs, and computer use beyond school”. In: Comput. Educ. 51.3, pp. 1392–1404. issn: 0360-1315. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2008. 01.003. 2 How can we attract more girls to Informatics: problems and strategies The underrepresentation of women in Informatics higher education and, consequently, in the Informatics industry, is largely tied to practices in primary school education. It has been reported that gender stereotypes and social expectations strongly discourage girls to consider and pursue Informatics (Szl´avi and Bern´at 2021; Happe and Buhnova 2022). Young women’s barriers to engagement in Informatics education and careers, however, are also linked to the classroom (Happe, Buhnova, et al. 2021; Szl´avi 2021). The attitude of teachers and classmates, the curriculum and learning environment, insufficient knowledge regarding the myriad of jobs available within the IT job market, and what competencies such jobs require lead to the critically low number of girls choosing Informatics courses at university. In this section, we introduce the significant reasons girls do not choose Informatics and the strategies and suggestions to remedy this social, educational, and economic problem. Major Reasons Behind The Problems Recent studies and interviews conducted by EUGAIN’s working group 1 during meet-ups with initiatives helping girls with coding, show that the major reasons can be categorised under the headings of stereotypes, access, confidence, sense of belonging, and isolation topics (Happe and Buhnova 2022): (a) Access •The first hole in the leaky pipeline on girls’ pathway towards Informatics is linked to the missing access to encouragement and support, together with the access to suitable education that should build on the many different interests of girls that often span multiple disciplines. •Lack of relatable and engaging Informatics education: Girls have less interest in Informatics because they start to use computers later than boys, and they use them generally for homework, socialising, research, etc. Therefore, boys already have more experience. This makes girls stay behind boys regarding computer literacy. (b) Stereotypes Close family and friends often direct girls away from Informatics to protect them from a future where they cannot imagine the girls becoming successful. This shows how important it is to help families, especially mothers, understand that software engineering can be a great career choice for their daughters. •Stereotypes held by themselves: Gender roles change according to the culture. However, gender roles are given to women by society or cultures, like being a housewife or having fewer active roles in business life to take better care of the house and children, which affects women while choosing their careers. •Stereotypes held and communicated by their families: Families have a significant role in shaping their children’s careers. Because of the lack of knowledge, sometimes families can think Informatics is a hard, or even somehow unsafe, discipline for girls to engage with. Therefore, they are not supportive of an Informatics career. 3 •Stereotypes held and communicated by their teachers: Teachers influence student’s lives. Because of their lack of confidence or knowledge, they can be unsupportive of girls in Informatics or be more supportive of male students without being aware of it. •Lack of alternatives to stereotypes in the form of relatable role models: When girls can’t see or reach relatable role models as teachers in Informatics or successful professionals in informatics-related stereotypical images and messages can reduce girls’ sense of belonging. (c) Confidence When girls find themselves in the classroom, often surrounded by more experienced learners (typically boys), they feel less confident. It can be hard to fall into the category of a slow novice learner for little girls who often excel in other subjects. This leads them to leave the stage to boys at computer labs, courses, etc. (d) Sense of Belonging The girls who resist the earlier three challenges continue their education in Informatics and find themselves in classrooms surrounded predominantly by boys. This can make them feel they don’t belong there. Girls need to feel safe in learning environments. If the learning environment is not femalefriendly, or perceived as hostile to their way of expressing themselves and achieving understanding, they won’t feel competent. Isolation: Isolation is a symptom of the relatively small number of female students enrolled in Informatics degree programmes. •This can have a significant negative impact on female students when there appear to be few role models and peers (Stevenson 2020). •The larger numbers of male students, especially when the tutors and lecturers are also likely to be male, increase the likelihood that lectures and large lab and practical sessions are dominated by male students, reducing the chances of equitable participation by female students. •This can be compounded if the student cohort is further divided into smaller groups for a computer lab and practical sessions when the already small female student population is dispersed among many different groups or classes. •When students also lack self-confidence, then the chances of becoming isolated increase. Increased isolation is inversely proportional to a sense of belonging, and a sense of belonging is one of the most significant indicators of student progression. Strategies and Suggestions According to the recent studies in the literature and the interviews we conducted during our meet-ups with initiatives helping girls with coding, we devised suggestions to address major problems by following the strategies reported in (Happe, Buhnova, et al. 2021; Happe and Buhnova 2022) as detailed below: (a) Strategies and suggestions for access problem: Strategies: •Digital gaming and creative arts activities designed for girls (Main and Schimpf 2017; Milam 2012). •Start with online contextualised activities (Garcia-Penalvo et al. 2016; Menon, Romero, and Vi´eville 2020. 4 •Visual programming environments to teach introductory programming (Menon, Romero, and Vi´eville 2020; Siiman et al. 2014). •Involve discussion and reflections on the activities (Garcia-Penalvo et al. 2016). Suggestions: •Early contact with computers or computing: Providing early contact (starting from at least kindergarten) through visual programming environments to teach introductory programming or game-based activities helps engage girls. (b) Strategies and suggestions for the stereotypes problem: Strategies: •Provide girls with non-stereotypical examples to aspire to by showing them successful and relatable female role models in Informatics (Boston and Cimpian 2018; Nash 2017). •Portray work in computing as helpful, altruistic, and community-oriented (Boston and Cimpian 2018). •Provide opportunities to do Informatics activities as part of a group (Boston and Cimpian 2018; Brotman and Mensah 2008; Nash 2017). •Include physical reminders of women’s success in Informatics (Boston and Cimpian 2018). •Educate teachers by providing them with tools and approaches to better engage girls (Brotman and Mensah 2008; Crick 2017; Nash 2017). Suggestions: •Supportive families: Families should be informed about education in Informatics, made aware of the opportunities it brings, and reassured it is open to all genders. Since families often unintentionally promote stereotypical views about Informatics (e.g. Informatics is just for boys), it is advisable to plan educational events to increase their awareness. Parents can be encouraged to take their daughters to events and excursions, and share with them stories and role models from the history of computing to support children in their awareness of negative gender stereotypes. •Encouraging teachers: Together with actively supporting the girls in their classes, by giving them more attention and rewarding their multidisciplinary interests, teachers could use tools that have been developed and studied to support children in their awareness of negative gender stereotypes. •Approachable and relatable role models: Role models should be approachable and relatable to girls. They could be university students or women entrepreneurs. (c) Strategies and suggestions for access problem: Strategies: •Provide low-stakes opportunities for girls to experience success (Boston and Cimpian 2018; Nash 2017). •Install as a growth mindset the belief that abilities can be improved with effort, strategies, and mentoring (Boston and Cimpian 2018). •Adopt a positive, constructive attitude toward failure as a valuable learning opportunity (Boston and Cimpian 2018). 5 – After School: ∗FRC: FIRST Robotics Competitions can be held. ∗WRO: The World Robot Olympiad can be held. ∗Science fair per term is organised to facilitate increased internet usage and technologies. ∗After school club curriculum on coding is created to attract attention to the world of coding. ∗Summer school/camp is organised to expand the exposure of the ICT world to young learners. ∗Promote after-school activities to parents and explain why developing skills for Informatics is so important to their children’s future. 12 References Carter, Lori (2006). “Why students with an apparent aptitude for computer science don’t choose to major in computer science”. 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Warner (2022). “Equity in Access to and Participation in K-12 Computer Science Education”. In: Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2. SIGCSE 2022. Providence, RI, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, p. 1111. isbn: 9781450390712. doi:10.1145/3478432.3499117. Hoffman, Beryl, Ralph Morelli, and Jennifer Rosato (2019). “Student Engagement is Key to Broadening Participation in CS”. In: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. SIGCSE ’19. Minneapolis, MN, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 1123–1129. isbn: 9781450358903. doi:10.1145/3287324.3287438. Hubwieser, Peter, Michal Armoni, Michail N. Giannakos, and Roland T. Mittermeir (June 2014). “Perspectives and Visions of Computer Science Education in Primary and Secondary (K-12) Schools”. In: ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. 14.2. doi:10.1145/2602482. Jua, S, Sarwanto Sarwanto, and Sukarmin Sukarmin (May 2018). “The profile of students’ problem-solving skill in physics across interest program in the secondary school”. In: Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1022, p. 012027. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1022/1/012027. Mejias, Marlon, Ketly Jean-Pierre, Gloria Washington, and Legand Burge (2019). “Underrepresented Groups Threats to Belonging in Computing”. In: 2019 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), pp. 1–4. doi:10.1109/RESPECT46404.2019.8985905. Okoye, Kingsley, Arturo Arrona-Palacios, Claudia Camacho-Zu˜niga, Nisrine Hammout, Emilia Nakamura, Jose Escamilla, and Samira Hosseini (June 2020). “Impact of Students Evaluation of Teaching: A Text Analysis of the Teachers Qualities by Gender. International 13 Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education ISSN: 2365-9440”. In: 17, p. 49. doi:10.1186/s41239-020-00224-z. 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In: International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 14. doi:10.12973/iejme/3966. Wang, Jennifer and Sepehr Hejazi Moghadam (2017). “Diversity Barriers in K-12 Computer Science Education: Structural and Social”. In: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. SIGCSE ’17. Seattle, Washington, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 615–620. isbn: 9781450346986. doi:10.1145/ 3017680.3017734. Wang, Jennifer, Hai Hong, Jason Ravitz, and Sepehr Hejazi Moghadam (2016). “Landscape of K-12 Computer Science Education in the U.S.: Perceptions, Access, and Barriers”. In: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education. SIGCSE ’16. Memphis, Tennessee, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 645–650. isbn: 9781450336857. doi:10.1145/2839509.2844628. Weston, Timothy J., Wendy M. Dubow, and Alexis Kaminsky (Sept. 2019). “Predicting Women’s Persistence in Computer Scienceand Technology-Related Majors from High School to College”. In: ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. 20.1. doi:10.1145/3343195. 14 Recruiting female students Although boys and girls have the same skills and abilities in the use and learning of technologies, girls underestimate their competencies (i.e., they tend to have low self-esteem compared to boys) in this regard due to pressure and gender stereotypes, which skew their professional expectations. It is essential to get girls to have sufficient self-confidence and interest in technology from an early age when they are still in school. This part of the booklet will focus on the best practices and recommended actions for higher education institutions to recruit and encourage female students to study Informatics. Best practices and Recommended actions for Universities, Research Centres and Educational Institutions: •Informatics is an interdisciplinary discipline that increasingly plays a role in other fields such as humanities, medicine, social services, art, etc. It is important to transmit this reality in all promotional events of Informatics-related degrees so that young women can see that they can contribute, via computing, in those areas that are of interest to them and that motivate them the most (Stevenson 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Vainionp¨a¨a, Iivari, et al. 2020). •Universities should encourage their female staff to have good visibility and communication with female students to see the possibility of ordering two-subject degree programmes to integrate computing with art or another non-computing subject. An example is education and Informatics (Cronhjort et al. 2020). •There are groups of female teachers, researchers, Ph.D. students, etc., in computing that do an excellent job and have promoted the area despite being a minority. It is important to convey that all women in the computing field of a given institution are brought together in a way that minimises the effect of being in a minority group (Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Vainionp¨a¨a, Kinnula, et al. 2020). •In general, there is a lack of orientation of training opportunities and possible career paths in computing. Organising information sessions throughout the year is important to properly orient students about all the Informatics-related degrees they can pursue and their career opportunities (Stevenson 2020; Vainionp¨a¨a, Iivari, et al. 2020). Present the career paths discussed in the literature in a way attractive to women and men. •To promote female references in the technological field in schools, breaking stereotypes and making visible technological women. It is important to develop activities to make visible new female references in a way that is attractive and appropriate for girls (Voldase 2020; Tian 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Stevenson 2020). •Advertisement material should not build on stereotypical pictures of Informatics (such as dark colours and coding men). Instead, use bright, friendly colours, including people, ensuring gender balance and communication (Grabarczyk et al. 2022; Tian 2020). Make sure Informatics stands at Open Days as being more interesting to women. •Universities should use gender-balanced literature and advertise that the language used is gender-neutral or balanced. Moreover, they should encourage their staff, when writing new literature, to make it attractive to females by using more gender-balanced language. 15 •Universities should encourage staff to change the courses’ names to make them more interesting and accessible to women (Harvey 2012). For instance, University of California, Berkeley called an introductory programming module “The Beauty and Joy of Computing” with astonishing results - many more women took it than when it was called “Introduction to Programming”. •While women in Informatics are a minority group offering scholarships to female applicants could be considered. A good example of this could be mentioned in the case of Kosovo, where STEM scholarships are offered for first-year female students, resulting in gender-balanced classes (around 50% are female in the first year of the Computer Science programmes). Best practices and Recommended actions for Schools: •It is essential that Informatics is part of the school curriculum and teachers have the appropriate level to teach it. When the teacher does not know the subject sufficiently well, students perceive greater difficulty and lack of confidence, producing the opposite effect to the desired one, i.e. disinterest. •The course should be designed and developed inclusively, providing examples and exercises that may interest all genders. The goal is for the girls in the course to feel part of the community and have a sense of belonging (Seibel and Veilleux 2019). •The most relevant aspects to consider during the development of the course in the classroom so that female students do not feel intimidated are the following: –No male-centric paraphernalia in the classroom (Stevenson 2020; Tian 2020; Vainionp¨a¨a, Iivari, et al. 2020). –Control those “know-it-all” students who create a toxic environment (Seibel and Veilleux 2019). –Avoid unhelpful instructors who make female students feel that computers are not for girls (Seibel and Veilleux 2019). –Help female students feel self-confident (Seibel and Veilleux 2019). ∗Organising girls in Informatics groups Best practices and recommendations for the Ministry of Education: •Informatics should be considered in a separate course as part of the school curriculum, and in the development of that course, female computer scientists should be involved (Seibel and Veilleux 2019). •The course should start from an earlier age and should be motivational more than professional, presenting successful female computer scientists and their road map. •Girls with self-interests should be encouraged through social media campaigns and promotional activities, jointly with local NGOs supporting girls (Grabarczyk et al. 2022; Tian 2020). 16 References Cronhjort, Mikael, Samuel Bengmark, Linda Kann, and Viggo Kann (2020). “Leadership and Pedagogical Skills in Computer Science Engineering by Combining a Degree in Engineering with a Degree in Education”. In: 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. 1–9. doi:10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273958. Grabarczyk, Pawel, Alma Freiesleben, Amanda Bastrup, and Claus Brabrand (2022). “Computing Educational Programmes with more Women are more about People & less about Things”. In: Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1. ITiCSE ’22. Dublin, Ireland: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 172–178. isbn: 9781450392013. doi:10.1145/3502718.3524784. Harvey, Brian (2012). “The beauty and joy of computing: Computer science for everyone”. In: Proceedings of Constructionism, pp. 33–39. url:https://bjc.berkeley.edu/documents/ 2012%20Constructionism%20-%20The%20Beauty%20and%20Joy%20of%20Computing%20- %20Computer%20Science%20for%20Everyone.pdf. Seibel, Sherry and Nanette Veilleux (Apr. 2019). “Factors influencing women entering the software development field through coding bootcamps vs. computer science bachelor’s degrees”. In: J. Comput. Sci. Coll. 34.6, pp. 84–96. issn: 1937-4771. Stevenson, Monica L (2020). “The gender gap in STEM and computer science jobs: a study investigating job abandonment rates of women in computer science”. PhD thesis. Northcentral University. url:https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/gender-gapstem-computer-science-jobs-study/docview/2354843269/se-2?accountid=28955. Tian, Xiu (2020). Where Are All the Women?: Exploring the Research on the Under-Representation of Women in Computer Science.url:https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers/ 137/. Vainionp¨a¨a, Fanny, Netta Iivari, Marianne Kinnula, and Xiaocan Zeng (June 2020). “IT is not for me - Women’s Discourses on IT and IT Careers”. In. Vainionp¨a¨a, Fanny, Marianne Kinnula, Netta Iivari, and Tonja Molin-Juustila (Aug. 2020). “Career Choice and Gendered Perceptions of IT – A Nexus Analytic Inquiry”. In: pp. 37– 56. isbn: 978-3-030-49643-2. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49644-9_3. Voldase, Terry (2020). “The Perceptions and Lived Experiences of Female Students in a Computer Science Program at a Community College”. PhD thesis. Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 17 Retaining first-year bachelor female students Attrition rates in the first year of study are normally higher than in any other (Takacs et al. 2022). Retention rates are strongly affected by a sense of isolation, e.g., a lack of a sense of belonging (Sax et al. 2018), and low self-efficacy (Mejias et al. 2019). When we are good at a subject we feel we deserve to belong there. When students are unsure that they are good enough, or feel at fault when they do not understand, this can act as a barrier, reducing their chances of ever ‘belonging’. When students cannot identify with their peers or instructors and find it hard to mix with them, it can increase their feelings of isolation. If they feel ‘left behind’ when they cannot grasp concepts that appear to be easily understood by others, without encouragement from peers, mentors, and instructors, it may reinforce their feelings that they are not ‘good enough’ or ‘clever enough’. In this section, we make several recommendations to create opportunities to show everybody that they belong and deserve to belong in Informatics while providing mechanisms to support those who need encouragement. Regarding initiatives, parents of students who progress to university directly from school are often the neglected group even though it is well known that they have an even earlier influence on their children (Zauchner et al. 2021). Best practices and Recommended actions for Universities, Research Centres and Educational Institutions: •Role Models –Make female role models prominent, visible, and available to female students from early in the students’ first-cycle degree education. –Encourage outreach from women working in the IT industry as role models - invite female guest speakers from industry/academia to share their honest experiences as undergraduates and to talk about their achievements (Convertino 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Stevenson 2020). –Increase the visibility of female peers (i.e., to other female students in the same cohort) by placing female students together in the same lab/practical group in those cases where first-year students cannot all take the same lab/practical session together due to limited resources (e.g., there is less than a 1-to-1 ratio of enrolled students to computers in a lab) (Convertino 2020; Lyon and Green 2021; Seibel and Veilleux 2019; Tian 2020). •Mentoring –Provide mentoring support to female students in the early stages of first-cycle degree programmes. Female mentors are preferred, as evidence points to a greater sense of belonging when mentees can identify with their mentors (Lyon and Green 2021; Pantic 2020; Stevenson 2020; Voldase 2020). –Encourage and support female mentors from amongst the 2nd/3rd/final year student cohort in first cycle degree programmes and postgraduate programmes. Evidence also shows that self-efficacy and self-confidence increase when a female student is asked to mentor another female student (Ghio et al. 2020; Pantic 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019). 18 –Recognise mentorship as a valued voluntary activity on supplementary degree transcripts. This increases opportunities to recruit mentors from among the student population as they will be able to demonstrate a tangible, much sought-after skill to potential employers (Mondisa, Packard, and Montgomery 2021; Vrieler, Nyl´en, and Cajander 2020) –Provide opportunities for work placement or internship during the degree programme (Lyon and Green 2021; Pantic 2020; Smith et al. 2020). •Feedback and Guidance –Make it easier for women to ask/answer questions in mixed-gender mixed-ability lab/class environments (Convertino 2020; Kreth et al. 2019; Seibel and Veilleux 2019). This can be achieved by visiting each student and soliciting questions that will not be overheard. In a lecture room environment, consider allowing anonymous question-asking and answering through online services. Always point out that the questions are good or that many people have those questions, and encourage asking questions. –Increase opportunities for students to demonstrate they do know the material and that they are capable, through positive feedback in an environment that promotes and encourages student participation, by providing regular feedback on work/assignments during the academic term/semester/year (Nguyen and Lewis 2020; Seibel and Veilleux 2019). •Groups, labs, and extracurricular activities –Create small-group activities/extra-classes (e.g., lab exercises, assignments, etc.) and support all-female groups (Nguyen and Lewis 2020). First-year programming exercises and assignments should be contextualised with real-world examples where possible. This will help students understand why the techniques matter (Convertino 2020). –Actively promote inclusive extracurricular activities in safe spaces designed to encourage women to participate (Convertino 2020; Pantic 2020). •Additional support –Recognise, allow for, and support, students who are also primary carers. –For students who progress to university directly from school, parents may play an important role in encouraging them not to give up on their studies. Faculties should investigate ways to inform parents and others interested in motivating and supporting female first-year students about the deficit of female students in Informatics and the importance of gender balance in Informatics. For example, making this document available to female students with suggestions that they share it with their parents or their support network can help inform them of the difficulties they could face. Faculties should also explain what supports are provided to mitigate these difficulties. •Know the Data –When a student decides not to pursue studies in Informatics, consider interviewing them or conducting an exit survey to discover the underlying reasons. Institutions may be able to use the data to make better decisions regarding support mechanisms. 19 ∗Create questionnaires also for the first-year female students to better understand the difficulties they face. This can also be linked to different cultures and how they perceive things to a certain degree. Case - School of Computer Science, TU Dublin, Ireland Since 2012, TU Dublin has introduced several retention strategies to support their undergraduate Computer Science degree programmes. The strategies include ensuring that no lab has only one female student; lab assistants solicit questions from students oneon-one; the School supports the creation of a society for female technology students; and actively involves female mentors from industry (McKeever and Deirdre Lillis 2021). The School of Computer Science has improved their overall first-year student progression rate from an average of 45% per year (2004-2008) to an average of 89% (2012-2017), and the progression rate of female students is slightly higher than male students. Coupled with an improved recruitment strategy, in 2020 TU Dublin female students made up 30% of the intake across three computing degree programmes (Deirde Lillis 2020). 20 References Convertino, Christina (2020). “Nuancing the discourse of underrepresentation: a feminist poststructural analysis of gender inequality in computer science education in the US”. In: Gender and Education 32.5, pp. 594–607. doi:10.1080/09540253.2019.1632417. 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McKeever, Susan and Deirdre Lillis (2021). “Addressing the Recruitment and Retention of Female Students in Computer Science at Third Level”. In: CoRR abs/2110.06090. arXiv: 2110.06090.url:https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.06090. Mejias, Marlon, Ketly Jean-Pierre, Gloria Washington, and Legand Burge (2019). “Underrepresented Groups Threats to Belonging in Computing”. In: 2019 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), pp. 1–4. doi:10.1109/RESPECT46404.2019.8985905. Mondisa, J.L., Becky Packard, and Beronda Montgomery (Mar. 2021). “Understanding what STEM mentoring ecosystems need to thrive: A STEM-ME framework”. In: Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 29, pp. 1–26. doi:10.1080/13611267.2021.1899588. Nguyen, An and Colleen M. Lewis (2020). “Competitive Enrollment Policies in Computing Departments Negatively Predict First-Year Students’ Sense of Belonging, Self-Efficacy, and Perception of Department”. 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