‘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 ICT programs? How can women’s participation in IT programs be improved at the university level? For addressing these questions, the
chapter presents two cases, namely, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica and Aalborg University, Denmark. Although both Costa Rica and Denmark occupy privileged positions in the Global Gender Gap Index, they also face challenges. Based on a thorough analysis of national and detailed ICT program data from the cases, the chapter concludes that, to overcome the gender divide, radical and complex “fixing” of the organizations and ICT programs is needed. Instead of “fixing” the women, a requirement that builds on a deficit model of women, the data support a main-streaming strategy to ground the ICT programs in a humanistic orientation and promote diversity among staff, especially at the full professor level.