Breaking the gender digital divide. Involved factors in the choice of a technological career

Abstract

In Spain, only 17% of computer science students are women, a dramatically low tax, yet similar to the ones in the other western countries. This research analyses how some girls manage to overcome the gender digital divide, participating actively in a strongly masculinized world. To understand this process three young computer students girls technological life stories are analyzed. This research method allowed identifying the social practices surrounding the exceptional technological trajectories of these women. The results indicate that these girls have a high sense of technological competence; use self-learning strategies, scorning ICT formal education; and, have a developed taste for mathematics and logical processes. These factors may come from: a) a favorable family environment, in which the absence of brothers which could compete for computers and consoles use appears as a one striking factor; and, b) a fondness for videogames, that are, as literature signals, an important gateway to new technologies, which increase educational and professional opportunities. Finally, the research puts in evidence that, if a family environment favorable to technology exists, formal education processes can generate counteractive effects when comparing to fostering vocations capacity of informal learning.