Gender Issues in Studying CS - Balkan Perspective

1. Gender Issues in Studying CS - Balkan PerspectiveMirjana Ivanović, Zoran Budimac,Zoran Putnik, Nikola Trkulja10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, September 2010

2. AGENDA • Goals of the research and motivation • Questionnaire – Structure, Participants • Questionnaire – Data Processing, Results • Further Plans and Activities • Conclusion

3. Goals of the research • Inspired by results presented at DAAD WS 2008 • Exploring male/female undergraduate CS students • General success rate • Professional confidence, ambitions and interests • Level of satisfaction with the choice of studies • Attitudes and beliefs towards the gender issue

4. Motivation • Take into consideration and compare male/female opinion • Considerable lack of female students at universities worldwide, despite the different supporting acts made by academic community • Find reasons for inadequate involvement of women in IT industry and research in Balkan region by exploring both male and female opinions • Express key findings and give some useful suggestions in order to improve situation

5. AGENDA • Goals of the research and motivation • Questionnaire – Structure, Participants • Questionnaire – Data Processing, Results • Further Plans and Activities • Conclusion

6. Questionnaire – Structure • Questionnaire consisted of about hundred questions. • Divided into three main sections • General data • Motivation for enrollment • Ambitions regarding future career • There were two type of questions • Nominal scale questions (yes/no) • Ordinal scale questions (1 to 5 Lickert scale)

7. Questionnaire – General data section • Students were asked questions like: • Average mark? • Are you more comfortable with CS-related, than with math-related courses? • Do you feel worried about your future career in the field of CS? • Rate the quality of studies on various points? • During your studies, have you felt as part of academic community? • Rate your skills in each of the listed aspects? • Which grade did you achieve in the various courses?

8. Questionnaire – Motivation for enrollment • Students were asked questions like: • How did the following factors influence your decision to enroll this faculty? • Which of listed fields should be covered with more courses? • Role-models which inspired you to study CS? • Do you plan to continue you education with master studies?

9. Questionnaire – Ambitions regarding future career • Students were asked questions like: • On which job position from the list do you see yourself after completion of studies? • On which job position do you see yourself in 10 years? • Point out which fields of CS overall promise the most?

10. Questionnaire – Participants We want to thank to all our collegues who helped us with data collection in their countries

11. AGENDA Goals of the research and motivation Questionnaire – Structure, Participants Questionnaire – Data Processing, Results Further Plans and Activities Conclusion

12. Questionnaire – Data Processing • All data processing was done using R environment for statistical computing and graphics. • Various non-parametric technics were applied: • Nominal scale data was analysed using Fisher exact test and Phi association coefficient. • Lickert scale data was analysed using Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon test, and Freemans Theta coefficient. • Emphasis was put on finding associations betweengender and some other question.

13. Questionnaire – Results Do you expect to have a successful career in the field of CS?

14. Questionnaire – Results Are you more comfortable with CS-related, than with math-related courses? Female students prefer math related courses.

15. Questionnaire – Results Do you think studies positively influence your intellectual development? More male students think it did not.

16. Questionnaire – Results Rate quality of CS courses? p value = 0.81 What about Math courses?

17. Questionnaire – Results Rate quality of Math courses? p value = 0.000573 Maybe not so clear from these charts, but female students rate Math courses higher.

18. Questionnaire – Results How did interest in computers influence your decision to enroll this faculty?

19. Questionnaire – Results How did parents influence your decision to enroll this faculty?

20. Questionnaire – Results In order to prepare for successful career in CS, do you think there should be more electronics courses?

21. Questionnaire – Results Please rate knowledge of informatics of female teachers? p value = 10e-6

22. Questionnaire – Results Please rate knowledge of informatics of male teachers? p value = 0.005

23. Questionnaire – Results Is Computer Science good field for women?

24. Questionnaire – Results Is Computer Science good field for men?

25. Questionnaire – Results Do you consider there is a lack of women in CS? p value < 0.05

26. Questionnaire – Results In CS, women tend to bemore careful than men? p value is almost 0.

27. AGENDA Goals of the research and motivation Questionnaire – Structure, Participants Questionnaire – Data Processing, Results Further Plans and Activities Conclusion

28. Further Plans and Activities Add more countries into the research Conduct statistical tests for each country, and found out if there is significant differences beetwen countries. Also find correlations beetwen answers on some pairs of lickert scale questions. Interpret computed statistics and work towards writing a paper on this subject.

29. AGENDA Goals of the research and motivation Questionnaire – Structure, Participants Questionnaire – Data Processing, Results Further Plans and Activities Conclusion

30. Conclusion Present satisfaction with the choice of studies Participants expressed serious and ambitious attitudes regarding their career objectives Female students are little bit more ambitious, maybe because their male collegues do not fully recognize their hard work. Some number of male students think that they can do pretty much anything better then females.

31. Thank you for your attentionYou are welcome to ask questions?