abstract: 'In the digital age, the fields and professions related to computing are

  having an unprecedent impact on our lives, and on societies. As

  computing becomes integrated in fundamental ways in healthcare

  {[}10,11], labor markets {[}2,4], and political processes {[}3,6],

  questions about who participates and takes decisions in developing

  digital technologies are becoming increasingly crucial and unavoidable

  {[}7].

  A bottom line is that, if a rather homogeneous group develops most of

  the digital technologies, there is a risk that these technologies only

  consider a part of the population, and therefore unwillingly introduce

  biases or trigger exclusion. There are many intersectional

  characteristics - such as race, gender, or class - by which people can

  be part of an excluded minority. This keynote focuses on women as a

  gender minority in computing.

  In Western societies, the percentage of women participating in computing

  is low. According to a recent report for the European Commission, there

  are four times more men than women in Europe in studies related to

  Information and Communication Technologies {[}12]. Similarly, a study by

  the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that only 26\%

  of computing jobs in USA were held by women {[}13].

  Denmark is often viewed as a progressive country with gender equality;

  therefore, the gender homogeneity displayed in computer science

  education often comes as a surprise. In 2016, only 8\% of the incoming

  bachelor students were women at the Computer Science department at the

  University of Copenhagen (DIKU). This remarkable low percentage

  triggered many questions to us: How did a field initially led by women

  lost so many of them? Why is this an issue that society should care

  about? What are the practices and actions that help address this issue?

  Who should engage with those practices and actions?

  These are some of the questions that we have been addressing at

  FemTech(1), an action research project started in 2017 at DIKU. Action

  research is an approach by which researchers explore a problem, and

  develop theoretical understandings, while working on the development of

  solutions {[}9]. Unsurprisingly, our results show that there is no

  silver bullet to address the gender gap in computing. However, there are

  different strategies that can help broaden participation, and they come

  with their advantages and pitfalls.

  At FemTech, our efforts have been focusing in creating opportunities for

  people, and in particular young women with no prior interest in Computer

  Science, to explore ways in which computing could match their personal

  interests {[}1]. This approach is aligned with previous successful

  initiatives which suggested to create ``new computing clubs{''''} instead

  of including women in existing clubs {[}5]; and differentiates from a

  `deficit'' approach, by which the issue of gender diversity in computer

  science is framed as a problem of too few women, which can be addressed

  by bringing in more women {[}1].

  FemTech is a project with many developments and interventions. What

  started as a primarily educational initiative for women high-school

  students has evolved into a broaden initiative that seeks to address

  structural and cultural issues in computing {[}8]. The project has

  delivered many results, some of them especially tangible and measurable

  such as the increase of from 8\% to 18\% of women incoming bachelor

  students at the department in two years; and the decrease of the

  drop-out rate in the first year of the bachelor from 22\%-3.7\%.

  More importantly, throughout this project we have developed a great

  amount of insights which can be useful for engaging in similar endeavors

  and prompting discussions among those interested in addressing the issue

  of women as gender minority in computing. These insights include the

  importance of changing computer science departments from ``within{''''},

  the relevance of challenging stereotypical and narrow definitions of

  computer science, and the instrumentality of interactive artefacts in

  prompting change.'
affiliation: 'Bjorn, P (Corresponding Author), Univ Copenhagen, Dept Comp Sci, Copenhagen,
  Denmark.

  Bjorn, Pernille; Menendez-Blanco, Maria, Univ Copenhagen, Dept Comp Sci, Copenhagen,
  Denmark.'
author: Bjorn, Pernille and Menendez-Blanco, Maria
author-email: 'pernille.bjorn@di.ku.dk

  maria.mb@di.ku.dk'
author_list:
- family: Bjorn
  given: Pernille
- family: Menendez-Blanco
  given: Maria
book-group-author: ACM
booktitle: 'PROCEEDINGS OF THE 27TH ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MULTIMEDIA

  (MM''19)'
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1145/3343031.3355512
files: []
isbn: 978-1-4503-6889-6
keywords: Gender; Computer Science; Inclusion; Diversity; Action Research
language: English
note: '27th ACM International Conference on Multimedia (MM), Nice, FRANCE, OCT

  21-25, 2019'
number-of-cited-references: '11'
orcid-numbers: Blanco, Maria Menendez/0000-0002-7353-5183
pages: 510-511
papis_id: 8123e99091f4e3e90fba7f9598c1684d
ref: Bjorn2019femtechbroadening
researcherid-numbers: Blanco, Maria Menendez/AAY-3819-2020
times-cited: '6'
title: 'FemTech: Broadening Participation to Digital Technology Development'
type: Proceedings Paper
unique-id: WOS:000509743400058
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '14'
web-of-science-categories: 'Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications; Computer
  Science,

  Theory \& Methods'
year: '2019'