More Women in Informatics Research and Education

MORE WOMEN IN INFORMATICS RESEARCH AND EDUCATION TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORDS 02 INTRODUCTION 06 01 RECRUITING FEMALE STUDENTS 09 02 RECRUITING WOMEN 11 03 INTERVIEWING WOMEN 13 04 KEEPING WOMEN 15 05 PROMOTING WOMEN 19 06 SUPPORT MEASURES 21 SOURCES 23 business analysts. Nowadays so many young girls start their adventure with tech as enthusiastic and skilled coders. And there could be so many more! We must strive to make the digital jobs and ICT-related research more attractive to women as a career path than it currently is. And I am sure that it is not only a demand from them that our work environments are supportive and safe. Supporting women and nurturing their talents can happen if we embed good practices into everyday work. This publication provides rich, comprehensive and hands-on advice on fostering gender equality and it embraces learning, working and career progression. Therefore, I warmly recommend it as useful inspiration to follow and apply in the academic workplace. I wish the best of luck to all women who embrace the digital opportunity! Claire Bury Deputy Director General Directorate General Communications, Networks, Content and Technology European Commission We often say that digital technologies change the way we live, work and learn today, that they offer unprecedented opportunities, while at the same time demand flexibility and adaptation. We often also tend to underestimate women’s contribution to today’s digital world and the various fields of creativity and intellectual endeavours. Women remain underrepresented in many areas and their high potential is not fully included in the innovation process. This is an issue of concern for policy making on different levels. This is my concern too. This asymmetry affects the tech sector in particular. Despite evidence that allowing for more women to enter the digital jobs market could create an annual € 9 billion GDP boost in the EU area, there is still a very large ICT gender gap in Europe. In order to fill it, we also definitely need more female graduates in this field. Apart from equality aspects and job market needs it is also important that women thrive in the digital world. This is already happening – women are for instance brilliant software developers, product designers or IT FOREWORD 02 03 “ ” Computation is at the core of the modern world, and has revolutionized our lives over the last fifty years. Universities and colleges cannot educate graduates fast enough to satisfy the demand from industry, and the careers for graduates in the field are varied, stimulating and well-rewarded. Nevertheless we are still failing to engage a significant proportion of the population in this exciting area. Universities have a key role to play both in reaching out to disengaged potential students and in leading by example, by ensuring that their own practices with respect to gender and diversity are of the highest standard. This small booklet is packed with practical advice for deans and heads of department on measures to improve the gender balance in their institutions, both within the student body and within the staff. Simple changes can have a big impact and the steps taken to improve the working and studying culture for women will reap benefits and improve the working culture for everyone. Without steps to widen participation in the discipline we will continue to be faced with a skills shortage that hampers the growth and development of the tech industry. There is a significant pool of female talent that is currently not attracted or retained. More importantly the needs and views of a substantial proportion of the population will not be taken into account in the development of the technology that will shape our future. I applaud the work that has gone into compiling this booklet and encourage all deans and heads of department to give it serious consideration. Professor Dame Wendy Hall DBE FRS FREng President ACM Europe Council 04 05 FOREWORD “ ” The bad news is that a predominantly male or female culture is self-sustaining. In the case of Informatics, the male-dominated culture has been the status quo for a long time. The good news is that when a mixed culture is achieved, this culture becomes sustainable. Research indicates that a minimum 30% of both genders achieves this stable mixed culture. So, while 50% of women would be a laudable goal, reaching 30% already allows us to congratulate ourselves on achieving a threshold. While the gender issue is often perceived as a women’s issue, a significant change is possible only when the majority of the heads and deans of Informatics departments and the leaders of research organisations see this as both a concern and an opportunity. We hope that this document will help to promote the changes toward women’s increased participation in Informatics research and education, to the benefit of all, men and women alike. Informatics is a field where women are in the minority, with the result that this field is losing a large amount of potential talent. While this problem is common across cultures, we, research organisations, academia and collaborators in the field, should ensure that the women who do select to study and work in IT are fully-supported in achieving their goals and potential. This booklet was created by the Informatics Europe Women in Informatics Research and Education working group. The booklet is intentionally compact to provide clear and simple best practices that will increase participation of women as both students and employees. It details actions that can be taken to attract women to participate in Informatics education and research and ensure their continued participation in the organisation at commensurate ratios with their male colleagues. These actions are not temporary measures, but need to become ingrained in the processes of organisations, so that, when less attention is paid to the gender issue, the number of women in Informatics will not decline. INTRODUCTION 06 07 01 RECRUITING FEMALE STUDENTS ■ Use multiple social media channels (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+) to promote events and reach a high number of prospective students. ■ Work with undergraduate open-day coordinators to recruit female student ambassadors and speakers from the department and industry. While female faculty may choose to volunteer as role models, this costs women their study/research time. ■ Present example stories about women with successful careers in Informatics in recruitment materials and on the departmental website, encouraging female candidates to apply and reducing the stereotype that Informatics related jobs are for “nerds”. 08 09 02 RECRUITING WOMEN ■ Offer courses and guest lectures on topics that are popular with undergraduate and graduate students and present new opportunities for researchers, such as human-computer interaction, multimedia, lifestyle Informatics, health Informatics or computational linguistics. ■ Include in course descriptions aspects of creativity in tech education and work, such as information and communication design, user interface design or participatory design. ■ Emphasise good prospects for employment in the IT sector for skilled workers and that salaries are above average. ■ Advertise openly for all positions, stating that you are an equal opportunity employer. ■ Describe positions in a broad way. State job criteria objectively. ■ State in the recruiting materials and job descriptions that the university/department/institute is committed to facilitating the combination of work and childcare. ■ Emphasise that jobs in Informatics allow for more opportunities for tele-commuting and tele-working, compared to other fields. ■ State that flexible terms of employment are possible, such as working part-time and flexible working hours. 10 11 Recruiting Female Students 03 ■ Distribute advertisements across a number of channels. For example, send them to women’s networks’ email lists, such as national women in tech networks or networks of female professors. ■ Approach candidates directly. For example, send the advertisement personally to (at least) three women you would like to see in the position. Ask them to apply, or ask them to send it to three other women who they think would be suitable. ■ Allow 3 months for applications to be submitted. Time is needed for the advertisement to reach the right women, and they need time to respond. ■ Take action if too few suitable women apply. For example, extend the deadline for applications and re-advertise the position (inter)nationally. ■ Re-examine the applications and consider re-advertising if the initial list of candidates selected for interview does not include any women. INTERVIEWING WOMEN ■ Ensure that the composition of the hiring committee is as balanced as possible. For example, ensure that at least 30% of the committee consists of women, with a minimum of two female members. ■ Invite women to the interview not only to see whether they are best for the position, but also to give them experience of being interviewed and increase their status at their own institution. ■ Raise the issue of increasing the representation of women in the department when interviewing women and men and ask how they would approach it. This provides extra tips and also shows the department is serious about the issue. 12 13 Recruiting Women 04 ■ Provide help with solving the “two body problem”, that is helping to find a position for the applicant’s partner. ■ Consider 18 months per child since PhD completion for mothers when comparing candidates for any success criterion, thus reducing the time used to judge the achievements. KEEPING WOMEN ■ Schedule meetings only between 09:30 and 16:30, so carers of young children are able to deal with commuting and childcare. ■ Overcompensate the imbalance of women in the institute by their overrepresentation at institute colloquia. For example, if 15% of the department is female, then make sure women give at least 25% of the talks. Invite external female speakers as well. ■ Organise a course for all senior staff members on unconscious bias. These can cover all diversity issues not just gender equality issues. ERC GUIDELINES For maternity, the effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD will be considered reduced by 18 months or if longer by the documented amount of leave actually taken for each child born before or after the PhD award. For paternity, the effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD will be considered reduced by the documented amount of paternity leave actually taken for each child born before or after the PhD award. https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/ ERC-Work-Programme-2017.pdf 14 15 Interviewing Women