Girls Don’t Walk Alone: Supporters’ Investment in Welcoming Girls and Women into Fields of IT

Abstract

AbstractSchools have an important role to play in making youth choose less gender-stereotypical educations. Schools can also play a significant role in opening the door to IT as a potential education for a wide group of young women. Through interviews with representatives from 12 Norwegian lower and upper secondary schools, this chapter explores how they consider their role in encouraging girls and women to become familiar with, and to consider studying, IT. Gender equality is a treasured value in Norwegian educational policy; however, schools have diverging views on what gender equality means in relation to IT, and also how to achieve it. The analysis demonstrates a lack of regulation and conformity in how schools address issues of motivating and encouraging girls to consider IT as a field of study.