Decoding the Gender Gap: Addressing Gender Stereotypes and Psychological Barriers to Empower Women in Technology

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26332v1
• Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:43:10 GMT
• Title: Decoding the Gender Gap: Addressing Gender Stereotypes and Psychological Barriers to Empower Women in Technology
• Authors: Zahra Fakoor Harehdasht, Raziyeh Saki,
• Abstract summary: The article examines the psychological and social barriers that influence this gap, as well as the interventions designed to reduce it.<n>Using a structured review, the findings assemble evidence on the role of early gender stereotypes in the family and school.<n>The article concludes by outlining practical and research implications and introduces the NEURON project as a pilot interdisciplinary initiative.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Recently, the unequal presence of women compared to men in technology has attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners across multiple fields. It is time to regard this problem as a global crisis that not only limits access to talent but also reduces the diversity of perspectives that shape technological innovation. This article examines the psychological and social barriers that influence this gap, as well as the interventions designed to reduce it. Using a structured review, the findings assemble evidence on the role of early gender stereotypes in the family and school and the continuation of this crisis in educational and career choices, through to the psychological challenges women face in professional settings, such as feelings of self-undervaluation, occupational anxiety, a heightened fear of technology, and structural limitations in educational environments. Special attention is paid to Germany, where the technology gap is particularly evident and where multiple national programs have been implemented to address it. The present review shows that effective solutions require more than anti-discrimination policies: they should include educational practices, organizational reforms, mentoring, and psychological support. The article concludes by outlining practical and research implications and introduces the NEURON project as a pilot interdisciplinary initiative aimed at accelerating current empowerment efforts and developing new programs for women in technology occupations.

Related papers

• Invisible Load: Uncovering the Challenges of Neurodivergent Women in Software Engineering [3.842784790053661]
  We propose a hybrid methodological approach that integrates InclusiveMag's inclusivity framework with the GenderMag walkthrough process.<n>We present a targeted literature review that synthesizes challenges into cognitive, social, organizational, structural and career progression challenges neurodivergent women face in SE.<n>These findings lay the groundwork for subsequent stages that will develop and apply inclusive analytic methods to support actionable change.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-12-05T01:22:59Z)
• Lost in Transition: The Struggle of Women Returning to Software Engineering Research after Career Breaks [3.1006429989273054]
  Academia, however, offers limited opportunities to motivate women to return.<n>Career disruptions due to pregnancy, immigration status, or lack of flexible work options can significantly impact women's career progress.<n>Our goal is to explore the specific challenges women encounter when re-entering academic roles compared to industry roles.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-09-25T20:19:42Z)
• Overcoming Obstacles: Challenges of Gender Inequality in Undergraduate ICT Programs [0.34865180646161636]
  In Brazil, women represent less than 18% of ICT students in higher education.<n>This study explores the perceptions of women undergraduate students in ICT regarding gender inequality.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-02T18:28:48Z)
• Exploring the Role of Women in Hugging Face Organizations [46.84136061744368]
  Women are highly underrepresented in both organizations and commits distribution.<n>Addressing gender disparities is essential to create more equitable, diverse, and inclusive open-source ecosystems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-03-21T10:06:52Z)
• Towards Privacy-aware Mental Health AI Models: Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities [58.61680631581921]
  Mental health disorders create profound personal and societal burdens, yet conventional diagnostics are resource-intensive and limit accessibility.<n>This paper examines these challenges and proposes solutions, including anonymization, synthetic data, and privacy-preserving training.<n>It aims to advance reliable, privacy-aware AI tools that support clinical decision-making and improve mental health outcomes.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-02-01T15:10:02Z)
• Open Problems in Mechanistic Interpretability [61.44773053835185]
  Mechanistic interpretability aims to understand the computational mechanisms underlying neural networks' capabilities.<n>Despite recent progress toward these goals, there are many open problems in the field that require solutions.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-01-27T20:57:18Z)
• High-Impact Innovations and Hidden Gender Disparities in Inventor-Evaluator Networks [0.0]
  We study millions of scientific, technological, and artistic innovations and find that the innovation gap faced by women is far from universal. We find that female examiners reject up to 33 percent more unconventional innovations by women inventors than do male examiners.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-08-01T20:52:40Z)
• A multitask learning framework for leveraging subjectivity of annotators to identify misogyny [47.175010006458436]
  We propose a multitask learning approach to enhance the performance of the misogyny identification systems. We incorporated diverse perspectives from annotators in our model design, considering gender and age across six profile groups. This research advances content moderation and highlights the importance of embracing diverse perspectives to build effective online moderation systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-06-22T15:06:08Z)
• Navigating the Path of Women in Software Engineering: From Academia to Industry [2.2732417897161934]
  We focus on Brazilian women to extend existing research, which has largely focused on North American and European contexts. Our findings highlight persistent challenges faced by women in software engineering, including gender bias, harassment, work-life imbalance, undervaluation, low sense of belonging, and impostor syndrome.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-12-08T02:58:26Z)
• Machine Unlearning: A Survey [56.79152190680552]
  A special need has arisen where, due to privacy, usability, and/or the right to be forgotten, information about some specific samples needs to be removed from a model, called machine unlearning. This emerging technology has drawn significant interest from both academics and industry due to its innovation and practicality. No study has analyzed this complex topic or compared the feasibility of existing unlearning solutions in different kinds of scenarios. The survey concludes by highlighting some of the outstanding issues with unlearning techniques, along with some feasible directions for new research opportunities.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-06-06T10:18:36Z)
• "STILL AROUND": Experiences and Survival Strategies of Veteran Women Software Developers [53.5211430148752]
  We conducted 14 interviews to examine the experiences of people at the intersection of ageism and sexism. We identified 283 codes, which fell into three main categories: Strategies, Experiences, and Perception. Several strategies we identified, such as (Deliberately) Not Trying to Look Younger, were not previously described in the software engineering literature.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-02-07T19:26:15Z)
• Investigating Participation Mechanisms in EU Code Week [68.8204255655161]
  Digital competence (DC) is a broad set of skills, attitudes, and knowledge for confident, critical and use of digital technologies. The aim of the manuscript is to offer a detailed and comprehensive statistical description of Code Week's participation in the EU Member States.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-05-29T19:16:03Z)
• Beyond STEM, How Can Women Engage Big Data, Analytics, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence? An Exploratory Analysis of Confidence and Educational Factors in the Emerging Technology Waves Influencing the Role of, and Impact Upon, Women [0.0]
  The professional participation of women in technology, big data, analytics, artificial intelligence and information systems related domains remains proportionately low. We identify ways for learning and self-efficacy as key factors, which together lead us to the Advancement of Women in Technology (AWT) insights framework. Based on the AWT framework, we also proposition principles that can be used to encourage higher professional engagement of women in emerging and advanced technologies.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-03-26T05:12:42Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.