STEM studies and digital gender gap in baccalaureate: The influence of digital competence in the academic future

Abstract

The digital gender gap is understood as an aspect that defines the lack of female presence in the STEM field. Therefore, it is necessary to consider aspects such as the use of ICT or digital competence itself to determine their influence on this underrepresentation. This research work has sought, by means of a selfassessment questionnaire of digital competence - INCOTIC 2.0 (González et al., 2018)-, to analyze a total of 409 students in the second year of baccalaureate from various communities throughout Spain. All this, with the main purpose of determining whether the level of digital competence is a determining feature of the lack of presence of women in the STEM field. Finally, as a result of the results obtained, we will verify relevant aspects such as the fact that greater ICT use is not equivalent to a higher level of digital competence, or that the differences between men and women with respect to their level of digital competence and the types of studies pursued -present and future-, indicate that they are related and may establish part of the existing gap between the two genders.