tributing factor to this challenge is women’s persistent underrepresentation.
Indeed, women who choose careers
in ICT account for less than 2% of all
women in the European labor market
while their participation decreases
with age (see https://bit.ly/2K4Imdv).
Similarly disheartening is women’s involvement in innovation and entrepreneurship. For example, women in the
EU, parallel to the situation in other
parts of the world, constitute less than
25% of science and engineering professionals3 and only 14% of associate
professionals, that is, those who perform research and operational tasks
including supervision and control of
technical and operational aspects of
engineering operations (see https://
bit.ly/2GqWBqI for details on these
statistics).
According to Catalyst, in 2014 women accounted for less than 1/3 of all
employees in scientific research and
development across the world (
averaged across regions, see https://bit.
ly/2zIUJpA). In Australia, for instance,
women engineers represent less than
13% of the labor force. In Japan, despite recent measures intended to improve gender ratios in STEM, neither
the 20% target of women in science,
nor the 15% target of women engineers
had been met by 2016. Recent reports
estimate that women comprise 39.8%
of all researchers in China12 and refer to the phenomenon of the “
missing women in STEM.”
14 Similarly, in
the U.S., women earning engineering, computer, and information sci-
Figure 1. Informatics education in Europe: Institutions, degrees, students, positions, salaries, key data 2012–2017, October 2018.
Source: Informatics Europe.
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
(RU)Austria(UAS)Austria(RU)Belgium(UAS)Belgium(RU)Denmark(UAS)Denmark (RU)Estonia (UAS)Estonia (RU)Finland(UAS)Finland (RU)Ireland (UAS)Ireland
(RU)Netherlands(UAS)Netherlands (RU)Switzerland (UAS)Switzerland (RU)Germany Greece Latvia Romania Spain U.K. (UAS)Germany Italy
Table 2bis graph: women percentage of students in Informatics Bachelor’s programs (first year)
Figure 2. The effect of closing the gender gap in STEM on GDP per capita.
Source: European Commission.
6
• Improvement in GDP
per capita by 2. 2 to 3.0%
• Improvement in GDP
by €610 to €820 billion
• Improvement in GDP
per capita by 0.7 to 0.9%
• Improvement in GDP
by € 130 to €180 billion
Rapid improvement in gender equality Slow improvement in gender equality
Im
pr
ovementin
GDP
perc
apita(
%)
5.0%
4.0%
3.0%
2.0%
1.0%
0.0%
2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050
Indicative list of non-EC related bodies, agencies, and associations promoting gender
equality in ICT in Europe.
Association URL
ACM-Women Europe https://europe.acm.org/
Women in Research and Education
(WIRE)
http://www.informatics-europe.org/working-groups/
women-in-icst-research-and-education.html
Women in High Performance Computing https://womeninhpc.org/
Athena SWAN https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/
Codess https://www.codess.net/
Women in Technology and Science https://witsireland.com/
Women in Games http://www.womeningames.org/
European Network of Women
in Leadership
https://www.wileurope.org/
European Network of Women Web
Entrepreneurs Hubs
http://wehubs.eu/
Startup Europe Leaders Club http://portal.opendiscoveryspace.eu/et/node/822017
European Platform of Women Scientists https://epws.org/