The contingent construction of the relationship between gender and computer science

There is a striking difference in female participation in computer science (CS) courses between developing countries and industrially developed ones. In industrially developed countries, there has been a decline in female participation in CS courses. Less well known is the fact that there is actually a difference in female participation in CS courses and in the rate of decline within Europe. It cannot therefore be said that the rate of decline is directly connected to the level of economic development. In fact, the state of technological development within many Third World countries is very high. Moreover, the globalization of computing implies the requirement of equal competence in CS between nations. Within the European Latin countries and in Greece and Turkey (collectively labelled L) as well as in the Slavonic countries and Bulgaria and Rumania (labelled S), the situation is very different from that found in the Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and German-speaking (ASG) countries. After giving some figures, I present six different and context-dependent explanations for these facts. These explanations require an examination of the structural and cultural constructions of the gender-technology relation. While structural causes can explain the differences between the S countries and ASG countries, as well as between the Third World and ASG countries, the difference between L countries and ASG countries seems to be most interesting because it cannot have its grounds in differences of political systems nor in the state of economic development