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Gender Diversity

Women are underrepresented in STEM. For many fields, the gap starts after graduation, when women enter professional life and progress in their careers. For Informatics (Computer Science, Computing), the gender gap starts much earlier and women remain a distinct minority from studies to the professional life, with the academic career being particularly affected. The lack of women in Informatics research and education and all sectors of Information and Communication Sciences and Technology represents a serious threat not only to the discipline but also to the economic and social development of Europe.  Although the problem is evident, progress has been invariably slow, in spite of all the momentum and impulse for change happening across Europe. 

On this landscape, Informatics Europe was the main proposer and is currently the Grant Holder Manager of theeugain logo COST Action "European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN)" (2020-2024) which aims at improving gender balance in Informatics through the creation and strengthening of a truly multi-cultural European network of academics working on the forefront of the efforts in their countries, institutions and research communities. To learn more about the COST Action activities and outcomes or get involved in it, visit the EUGAIN website and follow the project on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.  

Until 2020, Informatics Europe’s activities on gender balance in Informatics were coordinated by the Women in Informatics Research and Education (WIRE) Working Group. Currently, most members of the WIRE working group hold leadership positions in the EUGAIN COST Action, making part of its Core Group. The annual WIRE Workshop, collocated with the European Computer Science Summit is today co-organized with EUGAIN, and the Steering Committee for the Minerva Informatics Equality Award is chaired by an EUGAIN member. As of 2022, European collaboration within Informatics Europe related to gender equality is coordinated within the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. Please fill in the registrationform if you wish to contribute to it. 

Take a look at the below outcomes and resources to download relevant reports about Gender balance in Informatics.

  • 2022- Gender equality activities coordinated by the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.

    2021-2024 - Most WIRE members hold leadership positions in the EUGAIN COST Action.

    2012-2020 - "Women in Informatics Research and Education" (WIRE) Working Group

    *Note that the affiliation indicated was the one at the time of their participation in the Informatics education activities. Some people have changed affiliation since then.

    • The 2022 and 2023 Gender Equality in Informatics webinar series, aiming to contribute to sharing best practices as well as relevant research about gender equality and diversity in computer science. The series is a way to strengthen both the understanding as well as the action perspective of this topic.

    • Informatics Europe was the main proposer and is now the Grant Holder Manager in the COST Action “European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN)” from 2020 to 2024, which creates a European network of colleagues working at the forefront of the efforts for gender balance in Informatics in their countries and research communities, eventually across Europe at all levels. The COST Action objectives are divided over five Working Groups (WG): From School to University; From Bachelor/Master to Ph.D.; From Ph.D. to Professor; Cooperation with Industry and Society; Strategy & Dissemination.

    • The annual workshop of the WIRE Working Group organised since 2018 and collocated with the European Computer Science Summit. The first workshop was held in Gothenburg, October 2018; the second - in Rome, October 2019, the third was held online in October 2020.

    • The annual Minerva Informatics Equality Award, first issued in 2016, recognising best practices in Departments or Faculties of European Universities and Research Labs that encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education.

    • Supporting the womENcourage conferences, enabling a number of free registrations for students of Informatics Europe member institutions in several editions. Lynda Hardman, President of Informatics Europe, was a keynote speaker at the ACM-W Europe womENcourage 2016.  

    • Publication in 2016 of the best practice booklet "More Women in Informatics Research and Education". The booklet, now in its second edition, is a compact source of best practices for deans and heads of departments aiming to increase the participation of women in their institution, both as students and as faculty members. Many tips are inspired by colleagues in leading positions who have successfully implemented actions to attract and retain more women in their institution. The booklet is endorsed by the European Commission.
      More Women in Informatics Research and Education

  • Best Practices in Supporting Women: all entries to the Minerva Informatics Equality Award

    Below is a list with European and worldwide initiatives designed to tackle the challenge of gender balance and to increase female representation in Computing. It also includes relevant European initiatives and projects that address the issue of gender imbalance in science in general. This list is a work in progress, more organisations and initiatives will be added incrementaly. If you would like to suggest additions to this list, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Relevant Blogs and Videos

     

    European Initiatives

    • ACM-W Europe
       ACM-W Europe is a standing committee of ACM Europe and will work to fulfill the ACM-W mission in Europe. The ACM-WE vision is a transformed European professional and scholarly landscape where women are supported and inspired to pursue their dreams and ambitions to find fulfillment in the computing field.
    • DigitalMuse.org
       DigitalMuse.org is a global collaborative network stimulating girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and improving their digital skills through creative enterprises such as music & DJ-ing, design & visual arts, video games & software programming, and TV, film & audio production.
    • Equal-IST
       The EQUAL-IST project (Gender Equality Plans for Information Sciences and Technology Research Institutions) aims at introducing structural changes to enhance gender equality in Information Sciences and Technology (IST) research institutions. The project aims to address objectives in relation to gender equality by supporting seven Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) from Northern, Southern and Central European countries, as well as one CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) country in developing and implementing tailored Gender Equality Plans (GEPs).
    • epws - European Platform of Women Scientists
      The European Platform of Women Scientists is an international non-profit organisation that represents the needs, concerns, interests, and aspirations of more than 12.000 women scientists in Europe and beyond.
    • genPort
       GenPORT is a developing online community of practitioners, served by an internet portal and made up of organisations and individuals working across the globe for gender equality and excellence in science, technology or innovation. GenPORT covers all sciences - natural and social sciences, and humanities. GenPORT offers an arena for organisations and individuals to showcase and access the world's best research resources, practical materials, policy briefings, experiences, and much more.
    • Hypatia
       Follow up of the project Science: It's a girl thing! (see below) Hypatia is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project that addresses the challenge of gathering different societal actors around bringing more teenagers, especially girls, into STEM careers both in school and as a choice of learning and career in the future. It aims at changing the ways sciences are communicated to young people in and out of school to make them more gender inclusive.The project will produce a toolkit, work around national hubs and organise a series of events. There will also be a campaign targeting teenagers all around Europe. Called “Expect Everything”, it will build on the results achieved by Science it’s a Girl Thing.
    • Portia
       Portia's is non-profit organization working to help women and men have the same opportunities for engagement and advancement in science, across all science disciplines by: 1) promoting cultures that are collaborative and sensitive to gender issues; 2) ensuring that quality of research and innovation is enhanced by addressing gender issues, where relevant; and 3) showing how new ideas and markets for science knowledge can be created by including women as co-owners and co-solvers of problems facing society. Flagship projects include genSET: gender in science and The Gender Summits: Quality Research and Innovation through Equality.
    • Science: It's a girl thing!
      First phase of the campaign 'Women in Research and Innovation'  created by the European Comission Research & Innovation Directorate designed to encourage more women to choose research careers. The first phase of the campaign, under the slogan "Science: It's a girl thing!", targets high school girls (aged 13-18) especially those who would not normally be interested in pursuing careers in science and research. Through online and face-to-face activities with inspiring women scientist role models, the campaign aims to reach out  teenagers to give real information about the excitement and challenges of being a professional scientist or engineer. The second phase of the campaign is planned to encourage young women, aged 19-25 at university, to choose research as a career.
    • Top Women Tech
      Top Women Tech is an recruiting and networking event, organized twice a year, where around 120 talented and ambitious women meet with 18 top international companies.
    • Women2020.org
       Women2020 is a partnership supported by top-level Belgian and European public and private-sector organizations, whose mission is to promote women's contribution to   achieving the Europe 2020 vision of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Women2020 is a platform for a multi-stakeholder, cross-generational and public-private sector dialogue in the form of a series of high-level, invitation-only gatherings during the course of 2013.

     

    International Initiatives

    • ACM's Women in Computing
      ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women.
    • Gender Summits
      The Gender Summits are a series of interconnected action based conferences held across the globe under the theme "Quality Research and Innovation through Equality". Their aim is to make gender equality the norm     science and to embed gender as a primary dimension of research and innovation quality.The Summits were established in 2011 in Europe. After that 4  Summits were held; bringing together over 2000 participants and 300 speakers and contributors representing expertise and leadership in policy, gender scholarship, science decision making and industry. In 2015  Summits will be held in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

    • Women in Music Information Retrieval (WiMIR)
      The initiative offers a mentoring program, travel grants, and technical workshop to women in Music Information Retrieval (MIR), a subfield of Computer Science. It provides mutual enforcing instruments for recruiting, supporting, and retaining females in the MIR field. The WiMIR mentoring program is organized on a yearly basis, with 4 remote sessions over a period of 6 months between mentor and mentee, so far spanning the continents of Europe, North and South America, Asia and Oceania. The WiMIR travel grants complement the remote nature of the mentoring program by enabling women to attend the yearly ISMIR conference and to meet the MIR community.  The WiMIR workshop, a satellite event of ISMIR, provides a venue for mentorship, networking, and collaboration among women and allies in the ISMIR community, while also highlighting technical work by women in MIR. 
    • Women in Technology International
      WITI was founded  to help women advance by providing access to - and support from - other professional women working in all sectors of technology. WITI started in 1989 as The International Network of Women in Technology and,  in 2001, evolved into The WITI Professional Association, the world's leading trade association for tech-savvy women. Today, WITI is the premiere global organization empowering women in business and technology to achieve unimagined possibilities.

    National Initiatives

    Czech Republic

    • Czechitas
      Non-profit organization made up of young women and men who all share one common goal – to increase diversity in the world of IT and to fight for a higher level of digital proficiency among women and in the new generation. Thousands of women and hundreds of children have already benefited and discovered the world of IT with their help.

    France

    • Femmes et Informatique
      A press review about women and informatics. An initiative from and curated by the Société Informatique de France.
      The SIF is a space for reflection and advise on the stakes of computing; a space for action and expansion of the activities based on the work the community carries out, bringing together all those who are passionate about making informatics move forward.

    The Netherlands

    • IPN EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) working group
       The IPN EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) working group strives to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in the Dutch ICT community. The group organizes concrete actions and events in this area and actively discusses EDI-related topics with policy makers, heads of departments and other relevant stakeholders. The working group holds plenary meetings four times per year. It includes representatives from all Dutch universities as well as CWI and NWO.
    • LNVH, the Dutch Network of Women Professors
       The Dutch Network of Women Professors began life informally in the nineties, and became a foundation on the 9th of August 2001. The LNVH is a network of over 1400 female professors and associate professors. Together they represent every discipline and all Dutch Universities. The LNVH aims to promote the proportionate representation of women in academia.
    • VHTO, the Dutch National Expert Organisation on Girls/Women and Science/Technology
      VHTO works in many fronts to increase the involvement of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Many activities and initiatives involve secondary education students, but VHTO has also in more recent years intensified its activities within higher STEM education. VHTO participates in a great variety of international projects and networks and uses knowledge gained from working with partners abroad to bring best practice into the Netherlands as well as sharing Dutch experiences with international relations.

    Spain

    • Red de Mujeres en Informática (MUIN)
      The goal of the network is to change the current situation in which the female participation in Informatics in Spain does not increase. More concretely the goals are:
      • Increase the presence of Informatics female students
      • Strength the professional/academic career of women in Informatics
      • Organize initiatives related to the women in ICT

     UK

    • Athena SWAN Charter
      The Athena SWAN Charter evolved from work between the Athena Project and the Scientific Women’s Academic Network (SWAN) to advance the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics (STEMM).

    • WISE
      WISE's  mission is to increase the gender balance in the UK's STEM workforce, pushing the presence of female employees from 13% as it stands now, to 30% by 2020. Their services are designed to build and sustain the pipeline of female talent in STEM from classroom to boardroom, boosting the talent pool to drive economic growth.

    • Stemettes
      Project to inspire the next generation of females into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields by showing them the amazing women already in STEM via a series of panel events, hackathons, exhibitions, and mentoring schemes.

    USA

    • National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
      The National Center for Women & Information Technology is a non-profit community of more than 450 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits working to increase women's participation in technology and computing. NCWIT helps organizations recruit, retain, and advance women from K-12 and higher education through industry and entrepreneurial careers by providing community, evidence, and action.

    • Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
      Since 1997, ABI has developed tools and programs designed to help industry, academia and government recruit, retain and develop women technology leaders. By providing inclusive platforms designed to ensure women’s voices, ideas and spirits will result in higher levels of technical innovation, ABI delivers programs that are changing the world for women and for technology. The Anita Borg Institute seeks to: increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology, and increase the positive impact of technology on the world’s women.

    • CRA-Women
      The goal of the CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is to take positive action to increase the number of women participating in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) research and education at all levels.

    • TechWomen
      Harnessing the power of business, technology and innovation, TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in technology sectors from the Middle East and North Africa together with their American counterparts for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading companies in the United States. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen works to empower women and girls through technology. It connects and supports the next generation of women in technology sectors by providing them the access and opportunity needed to pursue careers in technology. TechWomen strengthens participants’ professional capacity, expands and diversifies networks of technology professionals in the Middle East and North Africa region, fortifies partnerships and increases mutual understanding between key professional groups in the U.S. and the Middle East and North Africa, and expands girls’ interest in tech-based careers by exposing them to women role models in the technology field.

    • The Ada Initiative
      The Ada Initiative is a non-profit organization helping women get and stay involved in open source, open data, open education, and other areas of free and open technology and culture. It supports women in open technology and culture through activities like producing codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies, advocating for gender diversity, teaching allies, and hosting conferences for women in open tech/culture.

    • Dot Diva
      The Dot Diva / New Image for Computing (NIC) initiative is sponsored by WGBH, one of the oldest and most accomplished producers of public media, and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world's oldest and largest educational and scientific computing society. Dot Diva's mission is to create an exciting and positive image of computing for high school girls. Their nationwide survey revealed that not only do the majority of girls think of computing as "boring" and "hard," but they believe it fails to deliver two crucial benefits: "working with others" and "making a difference in other people's lives." Their ultimate goal is to transform this negative perception.

    • Women Who Code (WWCode)
      WWCode is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers by creating a global, connected community of women in technology. Women Who Code was founded in 2011 and has since grown to exceed 12,000 members spanning 14 countries. The organization is best known for its technical study groups, hack nights, career development, and speaking events featuring influential technology industry experts and investors.