Women in tech – role models for girls. Estonian case

ABSTRACT

The proportion of women in the IT sector is decreasing. In schools, girls tend to stay away from IT or take on roles in softer activities such as digital safety, social media. Studying and working in IT requires technical skillset. At the same time, the sector would need people with people and organizational skills as well. Technical skills can be learnt, but how to make the IT sector (especially cyber security) edible for young women is still a mystery. In the study, we look at data from the female role models project (2021), 7–12. Class Cyber Security Competition CyberDrill (2020–2021) and university admissions and dropouts (2021). There are fewer solutions than questions, example how should the world change so that it is easier for women to apply their skills in the IT sector, or should the women change? In this article I am reviewing various aspects of education that can influence girls’ choices. This shows the complexity of the problem, where on the one hand there are opportunities offered by the school and society and on the other hand, the expectations, and attitudes of girls in schools and women in tech need still to overcome.

KEYWORDS:

• Women in engineering careers
• diversity in IT
• role-models
• cybersecurity gender balance
• challenges for women working in tech

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).