Affirmative Action for Attracting Women to STEM in Chile

Abstract

Women are currently almost half of the work force in Chile, but very few of them work in the software industry. In part, this is because there are strong cultural stereotypes about what careers are "for men" in Chile. This idea has been further cemented by the standardized admissions process used by Chilean universities, where female mathematics scores have historically been lower than that of their male peers. In order to break these stereotypes and attract more women into STEM careers, the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Chile has created the Gender Equality Admissions Program (PEG, for its name in Spanish, Programa de Ingreso Prioritario de Equidad de Génera) in 2013. Under this program, 40 extra women are selected into the most competitive engineering and science program in the country. In the five years that the PEG has been in place, the number of women accepted into the engineering and science program has grown from 19% to more than 32%. Moreover, we have started to see an increase in the enrollment of female students in Software Engineering courses. This growth goes beyond the 40 new female students per year.