Women in Tech

2 COMPUTING IN SCHOOLS

Hannah Dee

The gender imbalance in computing starts early – there’s a good argument to be made that women are put off computing in school or maybe even before. At the start of school, all students study the same things in the same classrooms, but by the time students get to make subject choices there is a clear move away from computing for girls. This exodus happens across the UK and is evident at Key Stage 4 (GCSE) and Key Stage 5 (A-levels and BTEC Nationals). By the time students arrive at university, women’s participation levels drop to under 20%. To address the imbalance in the workforce, we need to understand why girls move away from tech in schools, clubs and universities – before they even begin to consider ...