168 lines
5.5 KiB
YAML
168 lines
5.5 KiB
YAML
abstract: 'In the digital age, the fields and professions related to computing are
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having an unprecedent impact on our lives, and on societies. As
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computing becomes integrated in fundamental ways in healthcare
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{[}10,11], labor markets {[}2,4], and political processes {[}3,6],
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questions about who participates and takes decisions in developing
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digital technologies are becoming increasingly crucial and unavoidable
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{[}7].
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A bottom line is that, if a rather homogeneous group develops most of
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the digital technologies, there is a risk that these technologies only
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consider a part of the population, and therefore unwillingly introduce
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biases or trigger exclusion. There are many intersectional
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characteristics - such as race, gender, or class - by which people can
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be part of an excluded minority. This keynote focuses on women as a
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gender minority in computing.
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In Western societies, the percentage of women participating in computing
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is low. According to a recent report for the European Commission, there
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are four times more men than women in Europe in studies related to
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Information and Communication Technologies {[}12]. Similarly, a study by
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the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that only 26\%
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of computing jobs in USA were held by women {[}13].
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Denmark is often viewed as a progressive country with gender equality;
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therefore, the gender homogeneity displayed in computer science
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education often comes as a surprise. In 2016, only 8\% of the incoming
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bachelor students were women at the Computer Science department at the
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University of Copenhagen (DIKU). This remarkable low percentage
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triggered many questions to us: How did a field initially led by women
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lost so many of them? Why is this an issue that society should care
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about? What are the practices and actions that help address this issue?
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Who should engage with those practices and actions?
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These are some of the questions that we have been addressing at
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FemTech(1), an action research project started in 2017 at DIKU. Action
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research is an approach by which researchers explore a problem, and
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develop theoretical understandings, while working on the development of
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solutions {[}9]. Unsurprisingly, our results show that there is no
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silver bullet to address the gender gap in computing. However, there are
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different strategies that can help broaden participation, and they come
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with their advantages and pitfalls.
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At FemTech, our efforts have been focusing in creating opportunities for
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people, and in particular young women with no prior interest in Computer
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Science, to explore ways in which computing could match their personal
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interests {[}1]. This approach is aligned with previous successful
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initiatives which suggested to create ``new computing clubs{''''} instead
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of including women in existing clubs {[}5]; and differentiates from a
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`deficit'' approach, by which the issue of gender diversity in computer
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science is framed as a problem of too few women, which can be addressed
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by bringing in more women {[}1].
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FemTech is a project with many developments and interventions. What
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started as a primarily educational initiative for women high-school
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students has evolved into a broaden initiative that seeks to address
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structural and cultural issues in computing {[}8]. The project has
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delivered many results, some of them especially tangible and measurable
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such as the increase of from 8\% to 18\% of women incoming bachelor
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students at the department in two years; and the decrease of the
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drop-out rate in the first year of the bachelor from 22\%-3.7\%.
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More importantly, throughout this project we have developed a great
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amount of insights which can be useful for engaging in similar endeavors
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and prompting discussions among those interested in addressing the issue
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of women as gender minority in computing. These insights include the
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importance of changing computer science departments from ``within{''''},
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the relevance of challenging stereotypical and narrow definitions of
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computer science, and the instrumentality of interactive artefacts in
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prompting change.'
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affiliation: 'Bjorn, P (Corresponding Author), Univ Copenhagen, Dept Comp Sci, Copenhagen,
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Denmark.
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Bjorn, Pernille; Menendez-Blanco, Maria, Univ Copenhagen, Dept Comp Sci, Copenhagen,
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Denmark.'
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author: Bjorn, Pernille and Menendez-Blanco, Maria
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author-email: 'pernille.bjorn@di.ku.dk
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maria.mb@di.ku.dk'
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author_list:
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- family: Bjorn
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given: Pernille
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- family: Menendez-Blanco
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given: Maria
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book-group-author: ACM
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booktitle: 'PROCEEDINGS OF THE 27TH ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MULTIMEDIA
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(MM''19)'
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da: '2023-09-28'
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doi: 10.1145/3343031.3355512
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files: []
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isbn: 978-1-4503-6889-6
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keywords: Gender; Computer Science; Inclusion; Diversity; Action Research
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language: English
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note: '27th ACM International Conference on Multimedia (MM), Nice, FRANCE, OCT
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21-25, 2019'
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number-of-cited-references: '11'
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orcid-numbers: Blanco, Maria Menendez/0000-0002-7353-5183
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pages: 510-511
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papis_id: 8123e99091f4e3e90fba7f9598c1684d
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ref: Bjorn2019femtechbroadening
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researcherid-numbers: Blanco, Maria Menendez/AAY-3819-2020
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times-cited: '6'
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title: 'FemTech: Broadening Participation to Digital Technology Development'
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type: proceedings
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unique-id: WOS:000509743400058
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usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
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usage-count-since-2013: '14'
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web-of-science-categories: 'Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications; Computer
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Science,
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Theory \& Methods'
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year: '2019'
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