Factors Afecting Female Students Motivation Related to Enrollment and Retention in Information Technology Courses

The difficulty of including women in a male-dominated environment is a growing problem over time, involving many factors such as the role of women in society. In the Information Technology context, there has been a growing concern in the industry and groups are being created with the main purpose of studying this problem and trying to reverse it. This work investigated what motivated the undergraduate students in Computer Science and Information Systems of the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Niteroi, Brazil) to choose this area and how they are experiencing the first two years of college. This research was conducted with a qualitative methodology, trying to understand the main fears, difficulties or facilities they faced before (and in the process of) choosing Technology courses. Our findings can be used to develop specific activities in the context of projects created to attract more girls to technology courses and to support undergraduate students in Computer Science Department courses. The main results indicate that there is still some uncertainty about the profession and many of them have difficulties to follow the initial content of the courses.