‘Fixing’ the Gender Divides in ICT Programs within Universities

Although information and communication technology (ICT) is a fast-growing sector, transforms societies radically, offers many job and career growth opportunities, and is higher paid, women are highly underrepresented in ICT-related programs. This study asks the following research questions: What is the rate of women’s participation in different kinds of university IT programs? How can we approach the women participation in IT programs at the university level? The chapter presents two cases, namely, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica and Aalborg University, Denmark. Although both countries occupy privileged positions in the Global Gender Gap Index, they also face challenges. Based on a thorough analysis of national and detailed IT program data from the cases, the chapter concludes that, to overcome the gender divide, radical and complex “fixing” of the organizations and IT programs is needed. The data support a mainstreaming strategy to ground the IT programs in a humanistic orientation and to promote diversity among staff, especially at the full professor level.