Gender and Regional Differences
in Brazil – do they really exist?
Taisy Weber
Rio Grande do Sul
South and southeast Brasil
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
highly industrialized region
strong economy based in services
and technology
gender roles
ƒ dramatic changes in the last
decades
ƒ decreasing population growth
ƒ women at universities in higher
percentage than men in all
regions
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
great job opportunities in
engineering and computer science
no perceptive gender
discrimination
but where are the women?
Graduation at UFRGS
ƒ undergraduate programs
ƒ Computer Science
ƒ 47 in 567 students
ƒ 8,2 %
ƒ Computer Engineering
ƒ 8 in 192 students
ƒ 4,16 %
ƒ students in the graduate programs
ƒ doctoral students in 2008
ƒ 17 women in 79 students
ƒ 21,5 %
ƒ master students in 2008
UFRGS is the best university
in south Brasil
ƒ 18 women in 173 students
ƒ 10,4 %
Professors at UFRGS
ƒ Computer Science
Institute (Instituto de
Informática)
ƒ active professors
ƒ 70 professors
ƒ 20 women
ƒ 28%
Numbers of my Institut
ƒ how can we explain the
numbers?
degree
% of women
Computer engineering
4,16%
Computer Science
8,20%
Master
10,40%
Doctor
21,50%
Docent
28,00%
ƒ why the girls don't choose
computer science and
engineering?
ƒ why we find a higher
percentage of women in
graduate programs compared
to undergraduate levels?
ƒ aren't the jobs attractive
enough for young women that
they prefer to stay at the
university?
Graduated at USP in computer science
year of
graduation
women
men
% of
women
1986
20
22
47,62
2001
9
38
19,15
2007
5
39
11,36
ƒ leading university in the
most industrialized city
in Brasil
ƒ the numbers shows a
significant decline in a
decade
ƒ in this period, the
number of computer
undergraduate courses
increases in private
universities and could
have attracted the girls
Graduated in all computer courses
south
year
women
2001
640
1492 30,02
2695
5905
31,34
2002
643
1907 25,22
2703
6932
28,05
2003
729
2230 24,64
3019
8806
25,53
2004
696
2930 19,19
3760
11726
24,28
2005
884
3461 20,35
4614
15320
23,15
2006
896
3977 18,39
4349
15807
21,58
A trajetória dos cursos de graduação da
área de computação e informática
Maria Izabel Cavalcanti Cabral et all.
men
southeast
%
women
men
%
there is some hope?
ƒ Olimpíada Brasileira de
Informática (SBC)
ƒ OBI (2007)
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
7951 participants
4622 boys
3329 girls
41,86 %
ƒ directed to teenagers
ƒ the number of girls decreases
regarding the age
ƒ but there is some interest that
could be reinforced
ƒ OBI (2008)
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
13867 participants
7184 boys
5683 girls
40,98 %
the numbers correspond to Brasil as a whole
Women in computer in south Brazil
ƒ in the 70’s, computer science
represented for a lot of young
women a new possibility to
work with technology (out of
engineering and teaching)
ƒ in the 80’s we begin to see the
decay
ƒ since the 90´s, with the
popularization of personal
computers, a significant
change was expected, but the
number of women remains
constant
ƒ all around the world computer
science and engineering are
seeing as a career for nerds
ƒ we suffer the same effect that
influence the girls around the
world (media)
ƒ young women choose to follow
social sciences, design, health
or teaching careers
ƒ at UFRGS we have a little
more than 50% of female
students in these graduations