Can Female Underrepresentation in Information Technology Be Solved Through an Awareness-Based Approach?

Abstract

In Bangladesh, there is a significant difference between the number of females and males working as Information Technology (IT) professionals. There are a concerningly less number of females choosing IT as a major as well as entering and staying in the IT industry. It is important to address this gap in participation as it will help in tackling gender inequality. This will result in nurturing a more diverse source of ideas in the industry. This study explored the factors influencing female underrepresentation in IT in the context of Bangladesh through a two-staged survey-based study and a focus group discussion. It also explored the possible solutions to the problem and proposed an awareness-based approach to address this issue. The data collected in the study provided evidence that this awareness-based approach can alleviate the problem to a great extent. CCS Concepts: • Social and professional topics → Women; Industry statistics. ACM Reference Format: Noshin Tahsin, Nazmus Sakib Ahmed, Moumita Asad, and Kazi Sakib. 2022. Can Female Underrepresentation in Information Technology Be Solved Through an Awareness-Based Approach?. In Third Workshop on Gender Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Software Engineering (GE@ICSE'22), May 20, 2022, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.