Webinar: Promoting Gender Balance and Diversity in Informatics Through A Better Involvement of Young People

Event Organizer: Informatics Europe

Event Website: https://www.informatics-europe.org/survey/index.php/785715?lang=en

Event Overview:

“There is a constantly growing need for skilled professionals in the computing field, which poses challenges for finding the right people for the job. According to the 2022 Digital Economy and Society Index, 55% of companies have problems filling their tech positions. At the same time, the computing sector is going through a diversity crisis, as the majority of its players are Global Northern, heterosexual, white, able-bodied, cis men. Technology permeates our lives, so a lack of diversity in the tech industry, especially when designing software, can lead to bias and exclusionary user experiences. As a consequence, we need to attract young people—for instance, Generation Z (GenZ), born between the mid-1990s and the 2010s—to computing. Moreover, there is a need for actions with a retention plan and a strategy to guide a more diverse group toward leadership roles both in academia and industry. Even though the awareness about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is continually being raised, interventions that focus on inclusiveness are still necessary. With the present talk, the speaker aims to present EUGAIN, a Horizon Europe-sponsored COST Action, whose purpose is to create a European network that enhances gender balance and diversity in the field of computing. More specifically, she will focus on a recent intervention project, designed by the Action, with the aim of including younger people in computing. According to research, GenZ cares about social values and a meaningful contribution to society, that is, DEI, as part of their work. Within the frames of this project, the speaker and her team collected testimonials by stakeholders working in computing and performed content analysis to investigate to what extent the experiences listed by CS professionals and the interests of GenZ align with one another. Findings show that professionals in the field recognize the social embeddedness of computing, which aligns with younger students’ values and confirms that computing is a valid choice to achieve their goals of making a positive change in society. With this talk, the speaker is to contribute to a better alignment of how to design interventions for including younger people, thus enhancing diversity and gender balance in computing.”

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