Research Publications

The European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics, through its established research networks, scientific exchanges, and networking activities, enables its members to conduct research.

This section highlights the scientific outputs of EUGAIN’s members.

2023

Szlávi, Anna; Versino, Serena; Zanardi, Irene; Bolesta, Karolina; & Jaccheri, Letizia. Bridging Values: The Inclusion of Young Generations in Computing. In: M. Antona and C. Stephanidis (Eds.): Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 14020, pp. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35681-0_10

There is a constantly growing need for skilled professionals in the computing field, which poses challenges for finding the right people for the job. According to the 2022 Digital Economy and Society Index, 55% of companies have problems filling their tech positions. At the same time, the computing sector is going through a diversity crisis, as the majority of its players are Global Northern, heterosexual, white, able-bodied men. Technology permeates our lives, so a lack of diversity in the tech industry, especially when designing software, can lead to bias and exclusionary user experiences. As a consequence, we need to attract young people – for instance, Generation Z (GenZ), born between the mid-1990s and the 2010s – to computing majors. Moreover, there is a need for actions with a retention plan and a strategy to guide a more diverse group toward leadership roles both in academia and industry. Even though the awareness about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is continually being raised, interventions that focus on inclusiveness are still necessary. With the present paper, we aim to contribute to a better alignment of how to design interventions for including younger people in computing. According to research, GenZ cares about social values and a meaningful contribution to society, that is, DEI, as part of their work. In this paper we are presenting an intervention project, designed to increase DEI in computing, as part of which we collected testimonials by stakeholders working in computing. As a quality check, we performed content analysis after the completion of the project, to investigate to what extent the experiences listed by CS professionals and the interests of GenZ align with one another. Applying multiple methods of cross-checking, we confirmed the presence of social aspects in the lived experiences of CS professionals. Findings show that professionals in the field recognize computing’s social embeddedness, which aligns with younger students’ values and expectations and confirms that computing is a valid choice to achieve their goals of making a positive change in society. This study is part of a larger effort proposed and realized by EUGAIN, a Horizon Europe-sponsored COST Action, whose purpose is to create a European network that enhances gender balance and diversity in the field of computing.

Szlavi, Anna & Soares Guedes, Leandro. (2023). Gender Inclusive Design in Technology: Case Studies and Guidelines. In: Marcus, A., Rosenzweig, E., Soares, M.M. (eds) Design, User Experience, and Usability. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14030. Springer, Cham., pp. 343-354. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35699-5_25

The importance of inclusivity as a value in our social contexts is increasing; thus, it is not unusual that the software industry has started to embrace it. The need for such a consideration stems from the fact that the composition of the IT sector, especially of positions responsible for decision-making and the design of tools, reflects a workforce that is not diverse enough. This can result in blind spots in the design process, leading to exclusionary user experiences. Therefore, the idea of inclusive design is gaining more prevalence; in fact, it is becoming a general expectation to create software that is useful for and used by more people. With a focus on intersectionality – the understanding that social and digital difficulties result from a complex web of overlapping factors – inclusive user experience seeks to actively and consciously integrate minority, vulnerable, and understudied user groups in the design. UX that is based on inclusive design aims to overcome social disadvantages in all of their intersectional complexities arising from gender, sexual orientation, age, education, dis/ability, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity, among others. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that gender-inclusive design has challenges and limitations: the idea of gender inclusion in design is not yet a reality. Our research investigates academic literature, as well as tech industry practices, like the websites of Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Meta. We aim to understand how inclusive design is theorized and implemented nowadays. Our analysis shows that intersectionality suffers even when inclusivity is intended to be taken into consideration. We also offer guidelines for factors that might be explored for a more inclusive design. Our paper’s analysis leaves an opportunity for additional study; the complexity of identities and how disregarding them in software design can exacerbate inequality call for even more investigation and awareness.

Cutrupi, C. M., Zanardi, I., Jaccheri, L., & Landoni, M. (2023). Draw a Software Engineer Test – An Investigation into Children’s Perception of Software Engineering Profession. In 45th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE SEIS – Software Engineering in Society Track. Melbourne, Australia.

Context: Gender gap affects particularly the software engineering community, with both academia and industry being male dominated. Literature reports how the lack of women is a consequence of gender stereotypes around certain figures that begin in early stages of education, affecting children’s perception of the role they can play across scientific fields.

Objective: In this study, we asked children to draw a software engineer in order to collect their perceptions and let us check whether gender stereotypes still persist.

Methods: We asked a total of 371 children to draw a person who works in the software engineering field. We analyzed the drawings based on a set of parameters extracted from literature, and inspected the results through a cross-sectional study.

Results: Kids agreed on their representations of a software engineer: 51% drew a male software engineer and 44% of the children drew a female one, with a 5% of not recognizable representation. The main differences emerged when the data were grouped by age and gender: only 23% of eleven-year-olds girls drew a female software engineer, while 54% drew a male, and in 23% the gender was non-recognizable.

Conclusion: The findings revealed a favorable gender balance in children’s perception of software engineering. They seem more willing to recognize diversity, an improvement compared with what reported in previous studies. Children’s perception of technology has become more accessible, as a result of the COVID-19 situation. The findings may draw positive comparisons with the current gender gap in software engineering, encouraging future developments.

2022

Aydin, B., Misirli, Ö., & Atakan, S. (2022). Online Psycho-Instructional Model: For Women Victims of Cyber Bullying & Cyber Harassment. In Proceedings of The 7th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (IACHSS 2022). Paris, France: Diamond Scientific Publishing.

The aim of this study is to develop an online psycho-educational instructional design model for women who are victims of cyber bullying and cyber harassment. Within the scope of this research, cooperation was carried out with 4 psychiatrists and 3 instructional design experts. According to the relevant literature, it has been observed that the trainings for problematic internet use and cyber victimization remain at the knowledge level. However, these grievances cause serious dramatic effects on women, affecting their academic, work and family lives. Therefore, training should be fed not only with pure information but also with psychological variables. The psycho-educational process modeled for this purpose was based on online instructional design strategies with the aim of reaching more audiences. It has been observed that women who are exposed to cyberbullying often refer to experts working in the field of psychology. It has been observed that the victim women experience the serious effects of the victimization they experience in online environments. In order to propose a solution to this problem, instructional design specialists should cooperate with psychology experts while designing online training. The study process was designed with a design-based research model. The design, development and evaluation process was shaped by interdisciplinary discussions. Within the scope of the study, individual interviews were conducted with 9 volunteer victim of cyberbully women by obtaining the necessary ethical permissions. The data obtained from the interviews were used in the process of reorganizing the instructional design process. As a result of this research; the framework of the relevant instructional design is structured under 5 themes. The qualitative findings obtained at the end of this study and the detailed framework for education will be shared. In addition, critical implications for the development of cognitive flexibility, self-esteem and emotion regulation skills were shared within the scope of the study. This framework is expected to contribute to the literature.

Jaccheri, L. (2022). Software for a Better Society. In 2022 11th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing (MECO) (pp. 1–1). BUDVA, MONTENEGRO: IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/MECO55406.2022.9797130

The main goal of my research through 30 years is to understand how to imagine software for a better society. While researchers traditionally use students as subjects to pilot studies before they are carried out in industrial environments, the supporting pillar of my working method is to set up studies with students that go beyond the contribution to scientific literature and identify benefits for other stakeholders. The four primary actors are: students, instructors, industry, and researchers Later, in our studies we have identified issues that appear at the intersection between art and software. Artistic software projects have often a social goal and are highly innovative. Our studies in art and software have given the ground for two research directions. The first is maker movement and its role in educational practices. Typical topics of interest vary from engineering -oriented pursuits such as electronics, robotics, 3D printing to the use of art and craft. Leveraging the beneficial outcomes from the Maker Movement approach and programming languages designed for children, together with a group of researchers, and artists we have designed, implemented and evaluated workshop programs. In our studies we have identified the important factors that characterize the design of the activities and the main aspects of children’s engagement in such software intensive activities The second research direction is to harness the power of big data, increase collective and individual awareness about societal problems and ultimately create the needed intelligence that will lead entrepreneurs and policy makers to innovative solutions for societal challenges towards a sustainable society.

Marquardt, K. (2022). Enhancing Girls’ Feeling of Belonging to Computer Science. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 2 (pp. 644–645). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3502717.3532108

Marquardt, K., Happe, L., Koch, A., & Wagner, I. (2022). IT Mission: Interdisziplinäre Online Expeditionen. In easeCorona. Würzburg, Deutschland. https://doi.org/10.5445/IR/1000149935

Montogna, S., L. Alboaie, I. A. T., & Zaharia, C. (2022). Retaining Women in Computer Science: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Sides. In 2022 IEEE/ACM 3rd International Workshop on Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering (GEICSE) (pp. 35–42). https://doi.org/10.1145/3524501.3527598

Redmond, F. (2022). The Co-Design of An Outreach Initiative to Attract Females into Higher Education Computer Science. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 2 (pp. 650–651). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3502717.3532118

Rubegni, E., Penzenstadler, B., Landoni, M., Jaccheri, L., & Dodig-Crnkovic, G. (2022). Owning Your Career Paths: Storytelling to Engage Women in Computer Science. In J. Vallverdu (Ed.), Gender in AI and Robotics: The Gender Challenges from an Interdisciplinary Perspective. Springer.

Motivation & challenge: Computer Science suffers from a lack of diversity that gets perpetuated by the most dominant and visible role models. The community is doing itself a disservice by upholding techno-solutionism, short-term efficiency, and busyness as central values. Those models are created and consolidated over time through social and cultural interactions that increase the perpetration of gender stereotypes. Exposing people to diverse types of role models and stories can contribute to making them more aware of the complexity of reality and inspire them taking better informed decisions-making on their career paths. Likewise, showing different role models to stakeholders in society and industry can contribute to increase the workforce diversity in the profession of computing as well as to make a shift towards the consolidation of different role models. This, in turn, may contribute to strengthen resilience and adequacy for solving issues related to diversity, equality and inclusion in Computer Science and more importantly allowing women take the ownership of their career path.

Goal: To encourage the dissemination, sharing and creation of stories that show diverse career pathways to address gender stereotypes created by dominant stories in Computer Science. We tackle this issue by developing a framework for storytelling around female scientists and professionals to show a diversity of possibilities for women in pursuing an academic career based on the ownership of their pathways.

Method: We apply a qualitative approach to analyse stories collected using the auto-ethnography and use thematic analysis to unpack the components of what in these stories contribute to building the academic path in the field of Computer Science. Authors used their own professional histories and experiences as input. They highlighted the central values of their research visions and approaches to life and emphasised how they have helped to take decisions that shaped their professional paths.

Results: We present a framework made of the nine macro-themes emerging from the autoethnography analysis and two dimensions that we pick from the literature (interactions and practices). The framework aims to be a reflecting storytelling tool that could support women in Computer Sciences to create their own paths. Specifically, the framework addresses issues related to communication, dissemination to the public, community engagement, education, and outreach to increase the diversity within Computer Science, AI and STEM in general.

Impact: The framework can help building narratives to showcase the variety of values supported by Computer Science. These stories have the power of showing the diversity of people as well as highlighting the uniqueness of their research
visions in contributing to transformation of our global society into a supportive, inclusive and equitable community. Our work aims to support practitioners who design outreach activities for increasing diversity and inclusion, and will help other stakeholders to reflect on their own reality, values and priorities. Additionally, the outcomes are useful for those who are working in improving the gender gap in Computer Science in academia and industry. Finally, they are meant for women who are willing to proceed into an academic career in this area by offering a spur for reflection and concrete actions that could support them in their path from PhD to professorship.

Sarmento, C., Massoni, T., Serebrenik, A., Catolino, G., Tamburri, D., & Palomba, F. (2022). Gender Diversity and Community Smells: A Double-Replication Study on Brazilian Software Teams. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) (pp. 273–283). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER53432.2022.00043

Szlávi, A., & Landoni, M. (2022). Human Computer Interaction – Gender in User Experience. In C. Stephanidis, M. Antona, & S. Ntoa (Eds.), HCI International 2022 Posters. HCII 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1580 (pp. 132–137). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06417-3_18

Wilson, A. W., & Patón-Romero, J. D. (2022). Gender Equality in Tech Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Mapping Study. In 2022 IEEE/ACM 3rd International Workshop on Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering (GEICSE) (pp. 51–58). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1145/3524501.3527608

2021

Albusays, K., Bjorn, P., Dabbish, L., Ford, D., Murphy-Hill, E., Serebrenik, A., & Storey, M.-A. (2021). The Diversity Crisis in Software Development. IEEE Software, 38(2), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2020.3045817

Cooper, T., Aharony, N., & Bar-Ilan, J. (2021). Gender differences in the Israeli academia: a bibliometric analysis of different disciplines. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 73(2), 160–179. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-05-2020-0170

Purpose

This study explores faculty members’ outputs and citations by gender and academic rank in Israeli academia. The study focuses on the connection between research productivity and underrepresentation of women in academia. To this end, four fields were chosen, each representing a different discipline: Psychology (social sciences), Public Health (health sciences), Linguistics (humanities), and Chemistry (Exact sciences).

Design/methodology/approach

The name, the rank and the gender of the researchers were collected from the researchers’ websites and those of their departments. The number of publications and citations were retrieved from Scopus.

Findings

Findings revealed that there is a significant difference between the median number of men and women in Chemistry concerning publications and citations and in Psychology concerning citations. Moreover, in all four disciplines, females’ average number of publications was lower than that of males’, and that in three out of the four disciplines (Psychology, Public Health and Chemistry), men published more in top journals (the top 5%) than females, while the reverse was true of Linguistics. Furthermore, in three disciplines (Public Health, Linguistics and Chemistry), there is an increase in the average citations per female researchers between 2015 and 2019. Further, in all disciplines, women collaborated more than men.

Originality/value

As only a few studies in Israel have explored faculty members’ outputs and citations, this study contributes and enlarges the Israeli research concerning this topic.

Happe, L., & Buhnova, B. (2021). Frustrations Steering Women away from Software Engineering. IEEE Software, 0–0. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2021.3099077

Why do women choose particular interests, study programs and careers as alternative to software engineering? What are the triggers and benefits of these alternatives that software engineering is lacking? In this article, we share findings from a questionnaire study of 139 adult women, revealing the frustrations that women feel along their way to software engineering, whether they have stayed in, or have dropped out and are trying to re-establish the connection later. After identifying the frustrations, which all seem to be preventable, this article pinpoints the most promising solutions, such as the interdisciplinary approach to education, which could be of enormous help to girls’ retention in computing education.

Happe, L., Buhnova, B., Koziolek, A., & Wagner, I. (2021). Effective measures to foster girls’ interest in secondary computer science education. Education and Information Technologies, 26(3), 2811–2829. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10379-x

The interest of girls in computing drops early during primary and secondary education, with minimal recovery in later education stages. In combination with the growing shortage of qualified computer science personnel, this is becoming a major issue, and also a target of numerous studies that examine measures, interventions, and strategies to boost girls’ commitment to computing. Yet, the results of existing studies are difficult to navigate, and hence are being very rarely employed in classrooms. In this paper, we summarize the existing body of knowledge on the effective interventions to recruit and retain girls in computer science education, intending to equip educators with a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate map of interventions recommended in the existing literature. To this end, we perform an aggregated umbrella literature review of 11 existing reviews on the topic, together accumulating joined knowledge from over 800 publications, and formulate the findings in a map of 22 concrete interventions structured in six groups according to their phase and purpose.

Marquardt, K. (2021). Ein Rahmenwerk für Evaluierung von Interdisziplinären Lerneinheiten für den Informatikunterricht. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie. https://doi.org/10.5445/IR/1000143548

Although many computer science offerings in the form of workshops and learning units have been created specifically for girls and young women in the last 20 years, the number of women in computer science-related studies and professions remains very low. Effective evaluations of learning units are essential for the didactics of computer science in order to understand the causes, to develop effective solutions and to ensure that computer science lessons are equally successful for girls and boys. One promising but little-studied approach is to attract female students to computer science by addressing interdisciplinary topics from domains in which they generally show greater interest. … mehr

Paton-Romero, J. D., & Jaccheri, L. (2021). hUGe 2 : An Interdisciplinary Research Program for Sustainability. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 4303–4306). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/BigData52589.2021.9671375

Szlávi, A. (2021). Barriers, Role Models, and Diversity – Women in IT. Central-European Journal of New Technologies in Research, Education and Practice, 3(3), 20–27. https://doi.org/10.36427/CEJNTREP.3.3.2582

Szlávi, A., & Bernát, P. (2021). Young women’s barriers to choose IT and methods to overcome them – A case study from Hungary. Teaching Mathematics and Computer Science, 19(1), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.5485/TMCS.2021.0521

2020

Bernát, P., & Szlávi, A. (2020). Lányok az informatikában – Módszerek és esettanulmányok a nők eredményesebb bevonására. In InfoDidact. Retrieved from https://people.inf.elte.hu/szlavi/InfoDidact20/Manuscripts/BPSzA.pdf

Nemzetközi felmérések szerint a természettudományos egyetemi szakokon a hallga-
tóknak csupán 30–40%–a lány, Magyarországon pedig mindössze 23%–a. Az informatikai képzé-
sek nemi aránya még ennél is jobban el van tolódva hazánkban: programtervező informatikus
szakon például 15%–hoz közelít a női hallgatók aránya. A hazai és nemzetközi kutatások arra
mutatnak rá, hogy elsősorban a nemi sztereotípiák – és az ebből adódó kellemetlen közoktatási
élmények – az okai annak, hogy kevés lány választja az informatikus szakmát. Cikkünk első ré-
szében olyan módszereket tekintünk át, amelyekkel felülírható a „nem tudom” és a „nem aka-
rom” élmény, és ezáltal a lányok számára is elérhetőbbé és élvezetesebbé tehető az informatika.
A második részben pedig két lehetséges módszernek, az interaktív prezentációnak és a játékfej-
lesztésnek a 2020–as Lányok Napján megvalósult gyakorlati alkalmazását mutatjuk be részletesen
esettanulmányunk keretein belül.

Jaccheri, L., Pereira, C., & Fast, S. (2020). Gender Issues in Computer Science: Lessons Learnt and Reflections for the Future. In 2020 22nd International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC) (pp. 9–16). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/SYNASC51798.2020.00014

Women are underrepresented in Computer Science disciplines at all levels, from undergraduate and graduate studies to participation and leadership in academia and industry. Increasing female representation in the field is a grand challenge for academics, policymakers, and society. Although the problem has been addressed for many years, progress has been difficult to be measured and compared across countries and institutions, and has been invariably slow, despite all the momentum and impulse for change taking place across several countries. Therefore, it is important to reflect on knowledge, experiences, successes, and challenges of existing policies, initiatives and interventions. The main goal of this paper is to provide an overview of several initiatives, studies, projects, and their outcomes. It contributes to building a body of knowledge about gender aspects in several areas: research, education, projects, networks and resources. This paper is mainly based on discussions in working groups and the material collected for and during a series of talks on the topic held by the first author and by feedback received by the community. This paper provides the academic community, policymakers, industry and other stakeholders with numerous examples of best practices, as well as studies and recommendations on how to address key challenges about attracting, retaining, encouraging, and inspiring women to pursue a career in Computer Science. Future work should address the issue in a systematic and research based way. This work has been partially supported by the COST Action CA19122 – European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN).

Szlávi, A. (2020). Introducing the Gender Aspect into Hungarian IT Education. Central-European Journal of New Technologies in Research, Education and Practice, 2(2), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.36427/CEJNTREP.2.2.472

The IT sector has been rapidly growing; in fact, a high number of jobs are expected to
remain unfilled, which makes it our common interest to attract more students to this field. The striking
scarcity of women in the IT sector offers an obvious solution: if more women could be involved, the
labor shortage in IT could be fixed. The low number of women in IT has strong ties with IT
education; therefore, the role and responsibility of teachers is immense. If we want to have more
workforce and more competent professionals in the IT sector, educators need to create a more
hospitable environment for girls and women in (both secondary and tertiary) education. The present
study aims to show why it is key to introduce the gender aspect into IT education, both globally and
specifically in Hungary. The primary goal of the article, thus, is to call attention to the repercussions of
entrenched gender stereotypes in education, while also offering specific methods that can make IT-
related classes more inclusive.

Wegrzyn-Wolska, K. (2020). Quand la science infuse grâce aux femmes? In 2020 Monde de Grandes Ecoles.

Il y a 117 ans, le 12 novembre 1903, Marie Skłodowska-Curie une physicienne et chimiste polonaise, et
son époux Pierre Curie, ont reçu le prix Nobel de physique. En 1911, Marie obtient un nouveau prix Nobel,
celui de chimie, pour ses travaux sur le polonium et le radium. Marie Skłodowska, passionnée par la
science et scientifique d’exception, devient la première femme à avoir reçu le prix Nobel et reste la seule
femme récompensée deux fois. Ainsi aujourd’hui, quelle est la place des femmes dans la science au 21e
siècle ?

2023

2022

2021

2020

COST

ACTION CA19122

Action Details