Towards a socio-ecological framework to address gender inequity in computer science

In Australia the under-representation of women in computer science reflects the under-representation of women at the highest levels of government and business. In this paper we argue, therefore, that change is going to require a cohesive multi-level analysis and intervention approach. To illustrate how such an approach might look, we draw on social psychologist Uri Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological systems theory to analyse a national survey with secondary school computer science teachers we conducted in 2017. By employing this analysis we can see that student interest and engagement in computer science is impacted by their teachers, peers and parents (microsystem) who sit within a wider community, educational and industry network (mesosystem) which in turn is influenced by their access to relevant human and physical infrastructure (and the policies that shape it) in their school and social environments (exosystem) and by the broader values and rhetoric around gender and Digital Technologies in the wider Australian community (macrosystem).