Introducing the Gender Aspect into Hungarian IT Education

Abstract

The IT sector has been rapidly growing; in fact, a high number of jobs are expected to
remain unfilled, which makes it our common interest to attract more students to this field. The striking
scarcity of women in the IT sector offers an obvious solution: if more women could be involved, the
labor shortage in IT could be fixed. The low number of women in IT has strong ties with IT
education; therefore, the role and responsibility of teachers is immense. If we want to have more
workforce and more competent professionals in the IT sector, educators need to create a more
hospitable environment for girls and women in (both secondary and tertiary) education. The present
study aims to show why it is key to introduce the gender aspect into IT education, both globally and
specifically in Hungary. The primary goal of the article, thus, is to call attention to the repercussions of
entrenched gender stereotypes in education, while also offering specific methods that can make IT-
related classes more inclusive.