Professional Roles, Skills And Competences Of Female Engineers In The ICT Industry: A Case Study In Chile

Women play a fundamental role in the IT and ICT industry. In the last two decades, different actors have made great efforts so that more women choose to develop their professional futures in these disciplines. It is here where the insertion of women plays a fundamental role. As it is already known, the number of women who choose to study STEM does not increase considerably over the years; the increase is meager despite the fair offers of employability in public and private organizations in the area. This article aims to present an exploratory review to identify the roles, functions, and jobs most recurrently performed by women in computer science and ICT and also seeks to identify the most required professional competencies and skills for a female profile in this environment. Our methodology for the exploratory review consisted of applying the systematic mapping approach to relevant literature. Complementary results were obtained from the analysis of a sample of 31 female engineers from Chile, who provided us with information to classify roles, functions, competencies, and skills and to identify whether inclusion and equity initiatives are carried out in their previous or current jobs.