ICT Extra-curricular Activities: The “Digital Girls” Case Study for the Development of Human Capital

Digital technology is increasingly central to our lives, particularly among young people. However, a severe concern remains about the existing digital gender gap: despite the demand for ICT professionals is more and more increasing, women are under-represented in the ICT sectors and their low participation rates can be traced back to school years with internalised gender stereotypes. The present work explores the summer camp “Digital girls” case study with the aim of involving women from an early age in traditionally male sectors. The summer camp is organized by the engineering and computer science departments of two Italian universities that from 2014 have decided to undertake work to disseminate and raise awareness of ICT issues to girls in high school. The summer camp offers a protected context in which participants learn the principles of computer programming and are exposed to workshops on social networks, free software, cybersecurity, and interact with female ICT experts. The paper focuses on the analysis of data relating to the correlation between previous programming experience and the choice of university studies and social perceptions of the work environment.