Overcoming Obstacles: Understanding Gender Inequality in ICT Programs

Larissa Rocha — Fri, 02 May 2025 18:50:24 +0000

📍 My first Dev Community post – by a Brazilian professor and researcher

Hi everyone! I'm thrilled to share my first post here with a topic that’s very close to my heart: gender inequality in tech education.

In our latest research, “Overcoming Obstacles: Challenges of Gender Inequality in Undergraduate ICT Programs”, my colleagues and I explored the experiences of 402 women students from 18 Brazilian states who are enrolled in undergraduate ICT courses. Despite the growing demand for tech professionals, only about 16% of ICT students in Brazil are women, and our study dives deep into why that is.

🔍 What we found:

Many participants reported feeling underestimated or interrupted by peers and professors, especially in male-dominated classrooms.
Gender stereotypes and the lack of role models severely impacted their confidence and participation.
Challenges go beyond academics—students mentioned dealing with domestic burdens, harassment, and social expectations that question their place in tech.
However, students also pointed out strategies that helped them persist, such as mentorship programs, support groups, and greater visibility of women professors.

📌 We believe that listening to women’s voices is the first step to building more inclusive and equitable ICT programs—and that research like this can help institutions shape better policies and practices.

🧩 This work was presented at the 6th ACM/IEEE Workshop on Gender Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Software Engineering (GE), 2025.

📄 Here’s the full paper if you’d like to explore the data, results, and recommendations in detail.

💬 I’d love to hear your thoughts. How is your university or company addressing gender inequality in tech? Are there similar challenges in your country?

DEV Community: Larissa Rocha

Overcoming Obstacles: Understanding Gender Inequality in ICT Programs