Women in tech
Women in tech
Women in tech
What are the positive influences that make women choose and stay in tech?
What are the positive influences that make women choose and stay in tech?
What are the positive influences that make women choose and stay in tech?
In a Snapshot
In a Snapshot
In a Snapshot
The problem
Women currently hold only 26.7% [1] of tech-related jobs. The percentage of women employed in all tech-related careers has decreased over the last two years.
Despite equal access, new policies and practised being implemented and 83.6% [2] of technology companies operating with unbiased hiring, the trends don’t seem to improve.
The solution
We gathered multiple and different insights from the participants, on the basis of which we then ideated and designed the artifact: an activity handbook to help introducing I.T. concepts and computational thinking to children.
The process
Virtual
Ethnography
Interviews
Focus group
Ideation
Workshop
Virtual Ethnography
The first step in the research process was virtual ethnography. We opted to analyze only public and quasi-public environments. Our different ethnographies involved online newspapers, multiple social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter, websites such as Youtube, and online communities.
Both internal and external factors play a fundamental role in women’s choice of choosing and staying in I.T.
Family and external support is essential
I.T. isn’t always the first choice, and it’s usually discovered by chance
Problem-solving is the main aspect that women like about it.
Virtual Ethnography
The first step in the research process was virtual ethnography. We opted to analyze only public and quasi-public environments. Our different ethnographies involved online newspapers, multiple social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter, websites such as Youtube, and online communities.
Both internal and external factors play a fundamental role in women’s choice of choosing and staying in I.T.
Family and external support is essential
I.T. isn’t always the first choice, and it’s usually discovered by chance
Problem-solving is the main aspect that women like about it.
Virtual Ethnography
The first step in the research process was virtual ethnography. We opted to analyze only public and quasi-public environments. Our different ethnographies involved online newspapers, multiple social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter, websites such as Youtube, and online communities.
Both internal and external factors play a fundamental role in women’s choice of choosing and staying in I.T.
Family and external support is essential
I.T. isn’t always the first choice, and it’s usually discovered by chance
Problem-solving is the main aspect that women like about it.
Interviews
After the ethnographic process, we conducted several different interviews to better investigate the topics and themes that had emerged.
We conducted a total of 8 interviews, 4 in-person and 4 online; 3 interviewees work in the I.T. field, while the other 5 study in the same field. The questions can be divided into the following clusters:
Demographics
The path that led to I.T
Evaluation and personal experience
Challenges
During the transcription and thematic coding, we realized how the most recurring themes were in line with the insights obtained during the previous virtual ethnographies:
I.T isn’t always the first choice; most of the time comes during the last year of high school or the first year of university (almost the totality of interviewees)
The challenges aren’t always gender-related
Many women have thought about quitting but haven’t actually done it
Many women wished they had known about I.T. earlier (almost the totality of interviewees)
Interviews
After the ethnographic process, we conducted several different interviews to better investigate the topics and themes that had emerged.
We conducted a total of 8 interviews, 4 in-person and 4 online; 3 interviewees work in the I.T. field, while the other 5 study in the same field. The questions can be divided into the following clusters:
Demographics
The path that led to I.T
Evaluation and personal experience
Challenges
During the transcription and thematic coding, we realized how the most recurring themes were in line with the insights obtained during the previous virtual ethnographies:
I.T isn’t always the first choice; most of the time comes during the last year of high school or the first year of university (almost the totality of interviewees)
The challenges aren’t always gender-related
Many women have thought about quitting but haven’t actually done it
Many women wished they had known about I.T. earlier (almost the totality of interviewees)
Interviews
After the ethnographic process, we conducted several different interviews to better investigate the topics and themes that had emerged.
We conducted a total of 8 interviews, 4 in-person and 4 online; 3 interviewees work in the I.T. field, while the other 5 study in the same field. The questions can be divided into the following clusters:
Demographics
The path that led to I.T
Evaluation and personal experience
Challenges
During the transcription and thematic coding, we realized how the most recurring themes were in line with the insights obtained during the previous virtual ethnographies:
I.T isn’t always the first choice; most of the time comes during the last year of high school or the first year of university (almost the totality of interviewees)
The challenges aren’t always gender-related
Many women have thought about quitting but haven’t actually done it
Many women wished they had known about I.T. earlier (almost the totality of interviewees)
Focus Group
The foundational research process ended with a focus group to once again better understand the themes and the topics on which we gained insights during the interviews. The idea behind a focus group is to spark a natural and insightful discussion between peers that share a common experience regarding the topic of interest.
For that reason, we decided to involve 7 I.T. people (all of them students or working students), 5 women and 2 men. The goal was to gain more information regarding the low rates of women in the I.T. field from both perspectives.
After transcribing the focus group, coding and analyzing the data we discovered that:
Women don’t want this topic to be so stressed
The topic should be presented in a different way: often the subtext is “You can do it too”. They are totally aware of the fact that they can do it
During the process, many downsides are also present
Family plays a fundamental role
Focus Group
The foundational research process ended with a focus group to once again better understand the themes and the topics on which we gained insights during the interviews. The idea behind a focus group is to spark a natural and insightful discussion between peers that share a common experience regarding the topic of interest.
For that reason, we decided to involve 7 I.T. people (all of them students or working students), 5 women and 2 men. The goal was to gain more information regarding the low rates of women in the I.T. field from both perspectives.
After transcribing the focus group, coding and analyzing the data we discovered that:
Women don’t want this topic to be so stressed
The topic should be presented in a different way: often the subtext is “You can do it too”. They are totally aware of the fact that they can do it
During the process, many downsides are also present
Family plays a fundamental role
Focus Group
The foundational research process ended with a focus group to once again better understand the themes and the topics on which we gained insights during the interviews. The idea behind a focus group is to spark a natural and insightful discussion between peers that share a common experience regarding the topic of interest.
For that reason, we decided to involve 7 I.T. people (all of them students or working students), 5 women and 2 men. The goal was to gain more information regarding the low rates of women in the I.T. field from both perspectives.
After transcribing the focus group, coding and analyzing the data we discovered that:
Women don’t want this topic to be so stressed
The topic should be presented in a different way: often the subtext is “You can do it too”. They are totally aware of the fact that they can do it
During the process, many downsides are also present
Family plays a fundamental role
Ideation
Drawing from the research conclusions and the issues addressed, the team decided to “shift focus” and expand the target.
The second phase of the project aims to outline guidelines to design and propose activities for young boys and girls, aged 10-13. The goal is to start providing boys and girls with the same opportunities and information, especially when it comes to I.T.-related subjects.
The main idea behind this shift is not to target only the female part, but everybody, together, to promote inclusion, and to stress equality. In addition, as research suggested, it is important to start from a young age, thus the team focused on children, specifically middle school students.
The project objective is to help and support school teachers in introducing I.T. concepts and computational thinking to their students, through some fun and engaging hands-on activity.
The team proposed 4 different activities, which were tested and evaluated by I.T. university students through a 2-hour workshop.
Ideation
Drawing from the research conclusions and the issues addressed, the team decided to “shift focus” and expand the target.
The second phase of the project aims to outline guidelines to design and propose activities for young boys and girls, aged 10-13. The goal is to start providing boys and girls with the same opportunities and information, especially when it comes to I.T.-related subjects.
The main idea behind this shift is not to target only the female part, but everybody, together, to promote inclusion, and to stress equality. In addition, as research suggested, it is important to start from a young age, thus the team focused on children, specifically middle school students.
The project objective is to help and support school teachers in introducing I.T. concepts and computational thinking to their students, through some fun and engaging hands-on activity.
The team proposed 4 different activities, which were tested and evaluated by I.T. university students through a 2-hour workshop.
Ideation
Drawing from the research conclusions and the issues addressed, the team decided to “shift focus” and expand the target.
The second phase of the project aims to outline guidelines to design and propose activities for young boys and girls, aged 10-13. The goal is to start providing boys and girls with the same opportunities and information, especially when it comes to I.T.-related subjects.
The main idea behind this shift is not to target only the female part, but everybody, together, to promote inclusion, and to stress equality. In addition, as research suggested, it is important to start from a young age, thus the team focused on children, specifically middle school students.
The project objective is to help and support school teachers in introducing I.T. concepts and computational thinking to their students, through some fun and engaging hands-on activity.
The team proposed 4 different activities, which were tested and evaluated by I.T. university students through a 2-hour workshop.
Workshop
A workshop tested STEM activities with computer science participants. Four activities were split into two parallel groups, each evaluated individually. Discussions and feedback on the games took place after the activities, emphasizing group reflections and improvement suggestions.
Activity 1. Warm Up
The objective of the warm-up was to break the ice and encourage the participants to voice their opinions. They had to show with thumbs up or down their agreement or disagreement with ten controversial sentences.
Activity 2. Marshmallow Tower
The marshmallow tower, or spaghetti tower, is a widely practiced warm-up activity in education, fostering a design mindset and basic engineering principles, as emphasized by Rachelle's article in Tinkerlab (2015).
Activity 3. No instruction game
Participants discovered rules for an imaginary game using computational thinking, relying on example sentences from fictional players. They formed an algorithm outlining their devised rules.
Activity 4. Lego Activity
In the second parallel, this activity, inspired by a company workshop for master students, simulated an IT project's stakeholder dynamics. Participants, working as a team, had to listen and organize themselves in a real-life scenario.
Activities evaluation
The workshop systematically assessed activities using various methods: individual forms after each activity, workshop artifacts, team observations, and end-of-workshop discussions. The form template was adapted from the WHO's general workshop evaluation template.
Workshop
A workshop tested STEM activities with computer science participants. Four activities were split into two parallel groups, each evaluated individually. Discussions and feedback on the games took place after the activities, emphasizing group reflections and improvement suggestions.
Activity 1. Warm Up
The objective of the warm-up was to break the ice and encourage the participants to voice their opinions. They had to show with thumbs up or down their agreement or disagreement with ten controversial sentences.
Activity 2. Marshmallow Tower
The marshmallow tower, or spaghetti tower, is a widely practiced warm-up activity in education, fostering a design mindset and basic engineering principles, as emphasized by Rachelle's article in Tinkerlab (2015).
Activity 3. No instruction game
Participants discovered rules for an imaginary game using computational thinking, relying on example sentences from fictional players. They formed an algorithm outlining their devised rules.
Activity 4. Lego Activity
In the second parallel, this activity, inspired by a company workshop for master students, simulated an IT project's stakeholder dynamics. Participants, working as a team, had to listen and organize themselves in a real-life scenario.
Activities evaluation
The workshop systematically assessed activities using various methods: individual forms after each activity, workshop artifacts, team observations, and end-of-workshop discussions. The form template was adapted from the WHO's general workshop evaluation template.
Workshop
A workshop tested STEM activities with computer science participants. Four activities were split into two parallel groups, each evaluated individually. Discussions and feedback on the games took place after the activities, emphasizing group reflections and improvement suggestions.
Activity 1. Warm Up
The objective of the warm-up was to break the ice and encourage the participants to voice their opinions. They had to show with thumbs up or down their agreement or disagreement with ten controversial sentences.
Activity 2. Marshmallow Tower
The marshmallow tower, or spaghetti tower, is a widely practiced warm-up activity in education, fostering a design mindset and basic engineering principles, as emphasized by Rachelle's article in Tinkerlab (2015).
Activity 3. No instruction game
Participants discovered rules for an imaginary game using computational thinking, relying on example sentences from fictional players. They formed an algorithm outlining their devised rules.
Activity 4. Lego Activity
In the second parallel, this activity, inspired by a company workshop for master students, simulated an IT project's stakeholder dynamics. Participants, working as a team, had to listen and organize themselves in a real-life scenario.
Activities evaluation
The workshop systematically assessed activities using various methods: individual forms after each activity, workshop artifacts, team observations, and end-of-workshop discussions. The form template was adapted from the WHO's general workshop evaluation template.
Final product
Final product
Final product
Time
12 Weeks
My role
UX Researcher
Product designer
Method
Virtual ethnography, Interviews,
Focus group Workshop, User testing
Tools
Miro, Illustrator, Photoshop, Excel