Barriers to Gender Diversity in Software Development Education: Actionable Insights from a Danish Case Study

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the gender
gap in computer science education by focusing on an exploratory
case study conducted at the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU),
Denmark. The specific objective of this study was to draw on
existing research in order to empirically investigate the main sociocultural
barriers to female participation in the bachelor of Software
Development at ITU, and to generate insights that would inform
concrete and effective interventions. This investigation takes the
form of an exploratory case study, providing insights into
influential factors such as students’ perceptions, attitudes and
behavior towards software development education and gender
differences in pre-university coding skills.
Empirical evidence has been collected through semi-structured
interviews with 38 students (undergraduate and high school) and
surveys with 395 students (undergraduate and high school).
Research findings from the study have subsequently informed the
design of local interventions that have led to the recruitment of
double the percentage of women in the bachelor of Software
Development at ITU in one year, from 11% in 2016 to 22% 2017.
The study also describes and discusses such interventions.