Participation in the Digital Transformation: The Case of Women and IT Majors in Sweden

Abstract: Even in a country of high gender equality like Sweden, women are to a lesser extent taking part in the shaping of society. They neither hold leading positions to the same extent as men, nor are they well-represented in key industries. Much of this considerable power gap between the sexes can be attributed to occupational choice. With the purpose of evaluating policies that could change this, we examine the choice of college major, focusing on IT education. We conduct an information experiment on approximately 800 Swedish high school students, where respondents are divided into three different groups and treated with information on IT. Only younger female students respond to an affirmative action policy suggesting that they will not need to repay their student loans after IT studies, but not to an extent that would increase the share of women in the sector noticeably. In contrast, an information campaign on the employability of IT graduates only has positive effects on certain sub-samples of male students. A low degree of baseline interest in IT, and a lack of belief in their IT abilities is prevalent among the women. Thus, short-term interventions aimed at quickly increasing the share of women will not be effective until attitudes are altered and self-confidence is increased.