Mulheres na computação: experiências, trajetórias e perspectivas de estudantes universitárias

Abstract

In computing, historically, feminine contributions have been rejected or made invisible, characterizing this field as a masculine stronghold, marked by a patriarchal and androcentric culture, with reduced feminine presence. In view of the above, this dissertation had as its object of study the reduced presence of female students in the field of Computing. Its goal was to analyze the experiences and trajectories of female students of the Information Technology Center (CI) at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), composed of Computer Science, Computational Mathematics and Computer Engineering programs, all of which encompass face-to-face instruction. The study took a quantitative-qualitative approach and, to reach its goals, used the following methods: cohort study, online questionnaire, and interview. The questions that guided the collection and analysis of data were: what is the path of female students in the Information Technology Program (CI)? Do they perceive specific difficulties and obstacles because they are women, that is, a minority in this context? Do they get involved in the Program, for example, by joining research and extension projects? How long do they take to graduate from the program? How do female students perceive gender relations in the university? How do they manage relationships with colleagues, men and women, and teachers? What are their professional prospects? Results indicate that since the creation of the first Computer Science program, in 1985, the number of women getting into university has been decreasing. Nevertheless, they succeed and graduate proportionately more than men and in less time, but 66% of them have already thought about the possibility of dropping out. This is caused by a number of factors highlighted by those female students in their academic experiences: lack of credibility, harassment, sexism, and the ascription of occasional success to gender advantage. However, although gender socialization instills feelings of low selfesteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy in women, they achieve significant success due to their resilience.