Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Measuring The Success Of Intervention Programmes Designed To Increase The Participation Rate By Women In Computing, Annemieke Craig, Linda Dawson, Julie Fisher

Associate Professor Linda Dawson

Many intervention programmes to encourage greater female participation in computer education and careers have been conducted in the last twenty years. These intervention programmes take considerable time, effort and money to design and implement. If success were to be measured by an increase in the percentage of female students undertaking computing courses then these programmes would have to be considered a failure. This paper describes a research project which examined fourteen intervention programmes in detail. From the perspective of the programme champions each of the intervention programmes was considered successful, even when this success was restricted to specific areas or …