Gender Disparity in Computer Science Education in Bangladesh: A Study of Women’s Participation in Computer Science

Bangladesh is yet to produce adequate number of engineering professionals in the field of Computer Science.29 public, 54 private and 2 international universities aren't enough to allow more students in engineering and technical education. On the other hand, Bangladesh is still economically struggling and eastern patriarchal social barriers dominate the socio-cultural condition. Females of Bangladesh has been facing many visible and inherent obstacles in the way of earning higher education in technological discipline. The gender ratio of computer science education in undergraduate level in Bangladesh is 1:4, while in the IT sector the percentage of females goes down to less than 10%. In this paper, we have carried out an explorative study to investigate the complexities of these phenomena through qualitative research of Bangladeshi female students enrolled in computer science undergraduate program. We studied on a mixed sample of students who are deeply involved with computer science related activities and competitive programming. The study reveals that social barriers and economic issues quite hinder the smooth progress of an enthusiastic and potential female student of Computer science, while strong determination and family support take students to achieve their desired learning curve in computer science.