Is the Gender Gap Narrowing in Higher Education Computing Studies? The Case of Norway, Spain, and Tunisia

Traditionally, women have been underrepresented in Computing studies. The discipline is male-dominated in spite of the efforts promoting the participation of women in the field, both in the student base and in the professional arena. Literature underlined that student attraction and professional retention are aspects to analyse in a sound way in order to build strong and grounded theories for this complex misbalance phenomenon. In this scenario, authors study the gender gap in computing education by collecting data such as female students enrolled in one of the mandatory courses and female members of faculty. In addition to this data, socio-economic factors such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unemployment rate of the countries under study were considered. Results show that the gender gap in computing studies is not narrowing significantly despite the measures that were undertaken. In an attempt to explain the gender gap by considering macroeconomic variables, authors highlight the complexness of the phenomenon. Authors believe that there is not a single answer or explanation to this imbalance and a variety of aspects from values to culture and from economy to expectations need to be analysed in order to bring answers and possible solutions to this tangible problem.