The objective of this paper is to make a compilation of Latin American initiatives of both public and private institutions that have developed activities in the last two years in favor of reducing the gender gap in IT. In addition, a compilation of the efforts carried out in Costa Rica in this line is made, in which it is expected that this will be a benchmark of actions that have been carried out at the local level. And finally, the experience of the regionalization that has been carried out in a university project is presented whose purpose is to be able to bring the concept of computational thinking to the youngest and in this way to be able to collaborate with the reduction of the gap in the IT sector and encourage more interest in this area from an early age. This experience highlights the activities carried out and the first results obtained.
It is a reality worldwide that there is a difference in gender equity in terms of the labor force, for
example, Ruiz points out that in Costa Rica in 2014, the ICT sector labor force participation by sex
was 35.9% for women and 64.1% for men [
There are different entities in Costa Rica that seek to promote this equity, the Ministry of Science,
Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) has among its objectives to promote
gender equity in training, employment and enjoyment of the products of science, technology,
telecommunications and innovation As well as it has developed jointly with other instances the I
Action Plan 2018-2023: National Policy for Equity between Men and Women in Training, which
aims to: "To promote equity in the participation of women with respect to men in the attraction,
science, technology and innovation, in order to facilitate access to and enjoyment of the
scientifictechnological advances” [
There is also support from private companies such as National Instruments, SYKES, 3M Company, Microsoft (which will be explained further on) that support these equity initiatives. This paper compiles the activities in favor of this issue in Costa Rica, as well as examples of groups, entities and companies that support activities throughout the Latin America to promote gender equity in access to technology and opportunities. In addition, the experience of the project "Creating Programming Skills in Young People in Costa Rica" is presented, as an initiative of the School of Informatics of the National University, to contribute to generate access options for students in the field of technology and to bring this knowledge to the regional branches of the National University.
This paper is structured in the following sections: ii. Initiatives in the Latin America in favor of gender equity in the IT sector, iii. IT activities in favor of gender equity in Costa Rica, iv. Project Building Programming Capacities, v. Regional Headquarters, vi. Recommendations and Conclusions.
For this section, a bibliographic search of initiatives that have been carried out in all the countries of the Latin America was conducted to reflect the different movements in the IT area that have been carried out in favor of gender equity This compilation shows the support that has been given in the different societies of America between public or private instances. main actors and the description of this initiative. Public Associated Universities, Inc (AUI) in conjunction with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) LeadWoman CAL Matilda represents a joint effort of three founding guiding institutions: the Federal Council of Engineering Deans of Argentina CONFEDI, the Colombian Association of Engineering Schools - ACOFI and the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions - LACCEI.
Private Company 3M Private The Microsoft company The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises of Pichincha; the Ministry of Education and the National University of Education. (UNAE) Private The Microsoft company Public The Ministry of Public Telecommunications of Guyana, in collaboration with the National Center for Educational Resource Development Private The company Microsoft Public and Private MasterCard Company Public/Private The company Microsoft Private Company 3M Public The Professional School of Software Engineering of the National University of San Agustin of Arequipa Public It was promoted by the Research Center for Women's Action. (CIPAF) This event is a worldwide initiative promoted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) carried out since 2011, in which the Faculty of Engineering of the University of the Reṕublica
Supporting women who decide to follow their scientific vocation and accompanying them until they reach their goal Its objective is to create an academic space for debate, reflection, collective construction of knowledge, teaching, research and activities that stimulate and promote equal rights, opportunities.
Seeks to recognize women scientists who are making an impact through their research.
Provide young people with the opportunity to learn and develop STEM skills and equip them with the curiosity and skills that will serve them well in an increasingly digital world.
This initiative not only generates knowledge, but also provides the youngest with skills and abilities so that they can solve problems on their own, qualities that contribute to their growth.
Provide young people with the opportunity to learn and develop STEM skills and equip them with the curiosity and skills that will serve them well in an increasingly digital world.
The goal of using Scratch and BBC micro: bit to introduce girls in grades 7 to 9 to ICT education.
Provide young people with the opportunity to learn and develop STEM skills and equip them with the curiosity and skills that will serve them well in an increasingly digital world.
The initiative seeks to guarantee women's access to a wide range of digital technology alternatives that promote their development.
Addresses the need to introduce these fields to girls in high school levels through educational opportunities outside the classroom and supported by mentors and visual materials.
Provide young people with the opportunity to learn and develop STEM skills and equip them with the curiosity and skills that will serve them well in an increasingly digital world.
Seeks to recognize women scientists who are making an impact through their research.
The goal was to create a community of female students who would become role models who would share their motivation for STEM with the new students and who would actively participate in the recruitment process.
The project is aimed at girls and adolescents in the public education sector in the Dominican Republic as part of the efforts to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes that women are not "good" at mathematics or that they are not suited to "hard" scientific fields such as physics or computer science.
On the day, 320 girls from 21 high schools were received public
and private from Montevideo and the interior of the country, and
three types of workshops were developed: 1) Butiá robot
workshop, 2) Electrifying workshop, 3) Map your world
workshop
[
Uruguay has been participating in this event for several years, opening the doors of the faculty, and in particular the laboratories of in the Computing Institute (InCo) and the and Institute of Electrical Engineering (IIE).
Facultad de Ingeniería (School of Engineering) of the Universidad de la
Republica, Uruguay Source: Own elaboration.
workshops for robotics, circuits and maps making were held for high school girls as a way to promote ICT careers in Uruguay.
Table 1 shows that efforts do exist in Latin America and that there are efforts from the public and private sectors.
In the last five years, a series of activities have been organized by public and private institutions in Costa Rica, including workshops, hackathons, among others. The activities are aimed at promoting gender equity, giving an opportunity to disseminate these activities in order to integrate young women to participate in these events. In this section a compilation of activities is made in order to visualize all the efforts that have been made in Costa Rica in recent years.
Since 2012, the Sulá Batsú cooperative in conjunction with the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, from the San Carlos Local Technological Campus, has developed projects that seek to create employment conditions and work for women in rural areas, among these projects are clubs for girls and clubs for mothers, where they have developed communication and leadership skills, as well as technology camps and hackathons, among other activities aimed at women in the San Carlos area.
In addition, the case of National Instruments, which has held since 2014 the annual Girl's Day:
Let's Engineer! activity, an event dedicated to girls from 6 to 12 years old, in which all its employees
-both men and women- conduct workshops focused on science and engineering [
Since 2016, SYKES has been organizing the SWIT event, the aim of the activity is to get more
SYKES employees interested in technological areas, this space is dedicated to female employees of
the company [
The office of the First Lady of Costa Rica in conjunction with the U.S. government and the
Ministry of Public Education promoted in 2018 the Teach Her initiative which aimed to reduce the
gender gap in education through public-private partnerships, so that women could have access to
scientific, engineering, mathematics and design careers, this project was developed in a pilot plan in
which the following institutions participated: Naranjo Experimental Bilingual High School, San José
de la Montaña High School, Poas High School, Hojancha Professional Technical High School,
Changuena Rural High School, El Roble Environmental High School and Turrialba Experimental
Bilingual High School [
For its part, Intel in conjunction with Inspiring Girls in 2018 held the Wikithon, an activity in
which 60 girls learned about the history of outstanding women in STEM areas and uploaded their
profiles to Wikipedia. The activity was aimed at girls from public schools [
The STEAM Workshops for Young Women project, promoted by the Embassy of the United
States of America in 2019, carries out a series of workshops in which a constructionist methodology
is applied, which allows participants to learn by doing in a fun, creative and collaborative way. The
project is carried out with the support of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) and the Omar Dengo
Foundation (FOD) and is aimed at women between the ages of 9 and 20 [
The Virtual Innovation, Science and Technology Meeting for women in the Northern Zone was
held in 2019, this event aimed to promote the development of activities that would inspire men and
women to study technological careers, create their own ventures and use technology as a strategic
tool for their businesses, and thus contribute to the development of a more equitable region with
greater opportunities. This initiative was made possible thanks to the National Learning Institute
(INA), the Agro-industrial Technical School (ETAI), INAMU, the Technological Institute of Costa
Rica (TEC), the National Technical University (UTN), the Ministry of Economy, Industry and
Commerce (MEIC), the Ministry of Planning (Mideplan) and the Sulá Batsú Cooperative [
On October 22, 2020, the Gender Parity Commission of the Federated College of Engineers and
Architects held the First Meeting of Women in Science and Technology, an activity in which they
held talks on gender gaps, vocational development, and the participants also enjoyed virtual games.
This initiative was aimed at students from technical and academic high schools in 9th, 10th and 11th
grade from all over the country. The activity was supported by MICITT, MEP, INA, ICE, TEC, UCR,
INAMU and the Organization of Iberoamerican [
The MenTe in Action (Women in Science and Technology) program in 2020 carried out its 12th
Edition, the objective of this project was to promote the development of young women in the area of
Science and Technology, so that there are more and more women involved in STEAM areas in the
country. The event was aimed at young women between the ages of 15 and 19. This activity was
carried out in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, and the companies Accenture and
P&G [
CINDE developed in 2020 the Women Engineering Projects in Community Service initiative
which promotes the teaching of STEAM areas to women from schools outside the Greater
Metropolitan Area, the project is supported by Arizona State University, the Ministry of Public
Education and the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica [
The MICITT in celebration of the International Day of Women and girls in science in the year
2022 held participatory talks allowing an approach that would motivate girls and young women to
study science and technology-oriented careers [
On the other hand, Microsoft and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications
(MICITT) carried out the sixth edition of the DigiGirlz program in 2022, which seeks to break
stereotypes and empower girls and women who want to dedicate their lives to creating technological
solutions. The activity also sought to develop skills in the areas of science, technology and
mathematics to combat the gender gap that exists in the area and was aimed at Costa Rican women
and girls [
The project "Building Programming Skills in Youth and Teachers in both Secondary and Higher
Education" was formulated in 2019 and started in 2020, it is an extension project of the School of
Informatics of the National University. It aims to build programming skills in young people and
teachers, both high school and higher education. The participants are from the Greater Metropolitan
Area and the regional branches of the National University [
The workshops incorporate the application of computational thinking, which was coined by Wing
he "involves problem solving, system design and understanding of human behavior using
fundamental computer science concepts" [
The workshops are conducted synchronously using the Zoom videoconferencing tool and are held in a maximum time of two hours where participants are explained about the tool to be used (Scratch, Scratch Jr, Arduino or micro: bit in Tinkercad) and work with them in the development of the construction of a problem. This selection of a problem allows the student to have a greater participation in the development of these problems.
Below is an image of the construction of a project in micro: bit where we worked with the Tinkercad tool.
The image shows the game: rock, paper, scissors where the workshop participants can program using the blocks both the board where they will select the figure (rock, paper or scissors), as well as the board that will be controlled by the computer (where the figures appear randomly) and the board that will be controlled by the computer (where the figures appear randomly.)
In order to support students who, wish to learn more about other resources that are already available, access to the virtual classroom created with materials on the above-mentioned programs is provided. In this way, students can asynchronously watch the videos developed, download manuals, posters and infographics on these topics. Figure 2 below shows the sections according to each of the tools used in the project. This way of having in one place a resource in which students can be supported and even review the material to later create innovative projects in science fairs.
Each of the sections includes video tutorials, manuals, posters explaining the tool and projects in which students can solve problems using computational thinking.
Vargas and Jiménez indicate that constructivism "leads to conceive and develop the teaching and
learning processes from the individual's previous knowledge, life experiences and the possible
applicability of the contents learned in the real context of the people” [
Programming with circuits Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with circuits Programming with circuits Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with blocks Programming with circuits Programming with circuits Programming with circuits Programming with circuits Programming with circuits
As can be seen in Table 2, there is an almost equal number of 289 male students versus 262 female students for the years 2020 and 2021, for which it is expected to have a higher participation of students in several regions.
These students were asked to respond to a questionnaire about the reasons why they consider this type of workshop to be important: They are a good introduction for us freshmen to know what we will find in the career.
They help to understand and visualize some subjects and topics of the career to be studied, in addition to reinforcing the student.
The National University has 8 university campuses. The regional campuses in which work has been done are: Omar Dengo Campus, Benjamín Núñez Campus, Interuniversitaria Campus, Sarapiquí Campus, Liberia Campus and Nicoya Campus.
Workshops have been held for high school students in the following schools: High School Humanístico de Heredia, High School Humanístico Nicoya, High School Humanístico Coto, High School Científico Pérez Zeledón, and High School Científico Pérez Zeledón.
In the image 1 these zones are displayed:
A workshop was held for teachers of the Ministry of Public Education and others for the general public, and the company participated in national and international congresses.
There was a positive impact on the methodology that was planned (before COVID-19), since it was thought to be face-to-face. Therefore, it was necessary to carry out online activities. This affected participation in a positive way because there was support from the teachers of the institutions to participate.
The specific advertising to attract more girls was to make teachers more aware of the importance of promoting gender equity.
Table 1 shows that in Costa Rica, the same as in other countries in the Latin American, there are several initiatives in favor of gender equity in the area of technology, which have helped to motivate more young people to study IT.
Since 2020, the project "Creating Programming Skills in Young People and Teachers in Secondary and Higher Education" has overseen conducting various workshops for participants to acquire knowledge in the area of block and circuit programming, in which it has been concerned not only to have this knowledge in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM), but also in the different regions of Costa Rica.
The workshops have been carried out using the active learning methodology in different regions of Costa Rica where a wide variety of people have attended, from high school teachers, high school and university students and the general public, both Costa Ricans and foreigners. Having the possibility of having workshops via different video conferencing tools allows us to bring this knowledge to many people in different parts of the country.
Having a framework of other project initiatives at the international level allows us to learn from successful initiatives and cases in other countries and to apply them locally. In Costa Rica, there has been great support from the business sector to encourage activities in the area of gender, which allows us to support Costa Rican youth.
Finally, this project is expected to be able to continue holding workshops in the area of
programming by blocks during the year 2022 and to be able to hold a much larger event due to the
opening after COVID-19 according to the country's regulations.
7. Bibliography
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RomeroRobles, "MATILDA Latin American Open Chair: An international cooperation initiative to
increase women in engineering," 2021 World Engineering Education Forum/Global Engineering
Deans Council (WEEF/GEDC), 2021, pp. 349-355, doi:
10.1109/WEEF/GEDC53299.2021.9657236.
[11] Delfino.cr, 3M recognizes the work of Costa Rican women scientists in the second edition of 25
Women in Science, 2022. URL
https://delfino.cr/2022/02/3m-reconoce-labor-de-cientificascostarricenses-con-la-segunda-edicion-de-25-mujeres-en-la-ciencia
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URL https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/girls4tech-regresa-con-maraton-para-inspirar-amujeres-a-adentrarse-en-carreras-stem [18] OCDE, Mentoring OECD Network to promote STEM among girls and young women in Latin
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[