More women apply for IT studies
The proportion of female applicants for information technology has doubled since 2015, from 18 per cent to over 36 per cent this year.
- Technology and digitalization will affect us all. It is therefore important that the entire population is involved in developing solutions," says Safina de Klerk, vice president of NITO and head of the Oslo Science Centre.
Student leader at NITO Sofie Strøm Olsen welcomes the development.
"Even though we still see a predominance of men in IT studies, these figures that came out today show that the risk of ageing in the sector is not as great as it was before.
She points out that we are already seeing tendencies for technology to be trained on skewed data sets, which can contribute to AI models actually discriminating.
Diversity in IT studies will ensure a fairer society.
Leader of NITO Students, Sofie Strøm Olsen.
For many years, NITO has worked systematically to get girls interested in technology subjects.
- When Apple Health was launched, it did not take into account that women get their periods. When women are also involved in developing new technology, we avoid more such blind spots," says de Klerk.
