Attracting women to the ICT-field : Case: Content development for LUNO project
Imran, Christina (2018)
Imran, Christina
Oulun ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201901101185
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201901101185
Tiivistelmä
Women’s participation as specialists in the technology sector namely ICT fields have been remarkably low. This trend has lasted decades and continues to be so. In order to affect a change efforts are taken both internationally and nationally to increase women’s awareness, knowledge and participation in the ICT field by following STEM and educational paths to an ICT career. This development task was undertaken with the objective of providing content for LUNO project to attract more women into the ICT Field.
Inadequate and inefficient availability of information along with established social structures and gender stereotypes had partially caused the decline in number of women participating in ICT-fields. Simultaneously, the need for educated ICT experts and specialists continues to grow. Employability problems and staff shortages have been projected and reported. There is evidently, an urgent need to bridge the gender gap in the ICT field.
LUNO project aims to provide more information about the ICT-field to high school students, namely girls to help them start their career paths in ICT. The objective of this content development task was to develop a wordcloud mock up using standardized ICT job titles. Additionally, three interviews of women ICT experts were conducted as a part of the content development for LUNO project. These are to be further developed by the project and later on disseminated in an online platform.
This task was a contemporary one that showed there is urgent need for change and action to increase the number of women participating in the ICT-fields. Attitudes can be changed, but much needs to be done to make progress endure. This development task serves as a good start and it can be continued in diverse ways with support from many instances. With continuity in mind, the wordcloud can be edited as an updatable tool in future. More visibility and support for women in ICT can be achieved if more women were to be put in front as ambassadors for other women by promoting their field of work in ICT. This is a modest contribution but has potential to be implemented further to help more women decide on a lasting career in ICT.
Inadequate and inefficient availability of information along with established social structures and gender stereotypes had partially caused the decline in number of women participating in ICT-fields. Simultaneously, the need for educated ICT experts and specialists continues to grow. Employability problems and staff shortages have been projected and reported. There is evidently, an urgent need to bridge the gender gap in the ICT field.
LUNO project aims to provide more information about the ICT-field to high school students, namely girls to help them start their career paths in ICT. The objective of this content development task was to develop a wordcloud mock up using standardized ICT job titles. Additionally, three interviews of women ICT experts were conducted as a part of the content development for LUNO project. These are to be further developed by the project and later on disseminated in an online platform.
This task was a contemporary one that showed there is urgent need for change and action to increase the number of women participating in the ICT-fields. Attitudes can be changed, but much needs to be done to make progress endure. This development task serves as a good start and it can be continued in diverse ways with support from many instances. With continuity in mind, the wordcloud can be edited as an updatable tool in future. More visibility and support for women in ICT can be achieved if more women were to be put in front as ambassadors for other women by promoting their field of work in ICT. This is a modest contribution but has potential to be implemented further to help more women decide on a lasting career in ICT.