A Sorry Tale - A Study of Women's participation in IT Higher Education in Australia

Abstract

This paper examines long term changes in the participation of women in professionally accredited computing degree programs. It reports on the results of three intensive Australia-wide studies of the situation in the mid 1980s, in 1992 and in the late 1990s. The early study painted a detailed and rather depressing picture of women's representation in IT education. It also identified barriers to improvement in the discipline itself, the teaching institutions, and for individuals. The intervening years have seen many attempts to address these barriers in respect of both the attraction to and retention of women in IT courses. The current paper summarises the Australia wide studies and then draws upon recent localised data in contrasting environments and larger scale literature to explore how little things have changed as a result of these intervention programs.