Mentoring as a Tool for Better Gender Diversity in Informatics

Even though it has become common knowledge that diversity is essential to produce more inclusive technologies, women are still underrepresented in the field of informatics, starting with university programs. Women, as part of minoritized groups, face challenges such as sexism, stereotypes, and impostor syndrome in both informatics education and the industry. Several strategies are used to attract and retain women in the field, from school through university to the job market, and mentoring is one of the most frequently used tools in all levels of education and the career cycle. The present chapter investigates how mentoring programs are used to recruit and retain young women in informatics, by exploring the literature on mentoring programs in the field. Through a systematic literature review, this chapter aims to investigate existing mentoring programs that focus on gender diversity in informatics and to assess the impacts of these programs on promoting gender diversity in the field. The study unveils patterns in the different dimensions of the mentoring programs, such as location, activities, duration, mentor-mentee relation types, delivery method, and the gender and the level of experience of both the mentors and mentees. In addition, it reveals several gaps in the field. First, mentoring programs targeting a better gender balance in informatics are most often focusing on schools and recruitment into university, and retention, at university or in the industry, is much less addressed. Second, mentoring programs in less developed countries are paid much less attention. Further, more research should focus on mentoring programs that last for several years to make it possible to observe their long-term effects for a better gender balance in informatics.