Video: ITU conference addressed the gender gap in IT
The gender gap in IT education and workplaces was under scrutiny at a major conference at the IT University of Copenhagen on May 29, 2017.
Computer Science DepartmentEventsdiversity
Written 30 May, 2017 07:15 by Vibeke Arildsen
How do we motivate more women to choose an IT education and career? This question gathered people from all branches of the IT sector for a major conference at ITU on Monday.
»The transformation of society which happens through digitization involves everybody - men and women. Therefore, it is important that women partake in this transformation, not just as users, but also as creators.
Mads Tofte, Vice Chancellor at ITU
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"The transformation of society which happens through digitization involves everybody - men and women. Therefore, it is important that women partake in this transformation, not just as users, but also as creators. It is a problem on many levels that the diversity of those who create the software does not reflect the diversity among those who use the software or are affected by it," said Vice Chancellor Mads Tofte about the reason for the conference.
Among the presenters was Linda Sax, Professor at UCLA, who has studied gender diversity in Computer Science education for more than 25 years. She discussed the BRAID initiative, where 15 North American universities have committed to promoting diversity in their Computer Science programmes. The strategies include organizing programming workshops for pre-college students, creating a better study environment for women and revamping introductory Computer Science classes.
Professor Zachary Dodds from Harvey Mudd College was another US presenter at the conference. He is a driving force behind the university's successful effort to create an equal gender distribution in its Computer Science programme.
In addition, there were talks by Ida Kragh-Vodstrup from the Confederation of Danish Industry, Eva Sophia Myers from University of Southern Denmark, Charlotte Mark from Microsoft and Phoenix Perry, cofounder of the Code Liberation Foundation that teaches women to program games free of charge.
Vibeke Arildsen, Press Officer, phone 2555 0447, email viar@itu.dk