Gender diversity among computing students: Reflections from Norway, Spain and Tunisia

ICT is pervasively influencing all human activities. At the same time, and for reasons that are still being studied, the engagement of genders with ICT is not uniform. In this context, this paper aims to provide some insights into the experiences and challenges faced in three different countries (Norway, Spain and Tunisia), with regards to computing education. Three computing researchers working in these countries have collected required data from their institutions in a double effort: i) to compare the data from the three countries regarding gender equality and its evolution in two different scenarios: Software Engineering students and ICT faculty, ii) to examine their perceptions and provide some reflections, observations and avenues of research in the three case studies and cultures. Results are compared with recent national and international initiatives to bring justifications and avenues of research in the topic.