Designing Gender-neutral Software Engineering Program. Stereotypes, Social Pressure, and Current Attitudes Based on Recent Studies

Abstract

The research focuses on designing gender-neutral Software Engineering programs as a tool to reach gender balance in this domain. There is a general lack of female students and subsequently employees in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics. The attempts of attracting females in technologies have a long history and most topic related studies agree that the main reason for the low ratio of women in STEM is a result of gender stereotypes. This article reviews how gender stereotypes affect students’ interest in Software Engineering. The reason we considered gender-neutrality as a tool to achieve gender balance in Software Engineering lies in the fact that both genders experience the pressure of the stereotypes. Studies show that men are not likely to choose feminine products/jobs. Thus, making the educational program more attractive for females could discourage some males from enrolling. Our work considers different approaches to archive gender-neutrality and we present recommendations for gender-neutral program designs, which combine the considered approaches to gender-neutrality. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → User characteristics → Gender • Applied computing Education.