Who are we

Women into Computing (WiC) is a network of people committed to raising the profile of women in the computing and IT fields. Our membership, though largely based in the UK education sector, includes people from many different areas of computing and a number of countries overseas. For historical reasons, and the fact that our most active members have always come from this sector, the main focus of our activities has been in higher education; but we have also worked with colleagues and organisations in a number of other areas.

Our Activities

• WiC has been involved in a variety of initiatives designed to increase the representation and impact of women in all areas of computing and to support those already there. Our activities have included:
• Organising events aimed at attracting more women to study computing at further and higher education level
• Holding national conferences at UK Universities to raise the profile of our campaign and provide a forum for our members and others to discuss their research and activities in the field of women and computing with other interested academics and groups.
• 1998 University of Lancaster
• 1997 De Montfort University, Milton Keynes
• 1994 University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) (in conjunction with the IFIP Conference on Women Work and Computerisation)
• 1992 Keele University
• 1990 University of East Anglia
• Proceedings from some of these conferences are still available.
• Organising one-day conferences and seminars on particular topics
• Producing a Newsletter, which is distributed free to all members and university computing departments
• Building links and cooperating with other groups and campaigns with aims similar to our own
• Gathering information on the numbers and situation of women students and academics in UK universities
• Campaigning within the Committee of Heads and Professors of Computing (CPHC) on issues of importance to women students and academics, including the acceptance of gender related work as a valid area of computing research. A representative from WiC attends most CPHC Committee meetings.
• Providing a point of contact and source of support for our members

Who are we

The Promoting Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) for Women Unit, of the UK government office of Science and Technology was created following a recommendation to 1994 Rising Tide report to support women in fulfilling and rewarding careers in higher education, industry and teaching. The Promoting SET for women site links you to material and other sites on key issues like networking, careers, family friendly policies, research, role models, returning to work and funding schemes. There are also government statistics showing the fall in the number of women taking courses in all levels of computing.

Key Aims

• to focus effort on attracting more girls into SET subjects
• to promote SET as a fulfilling HEI career
• to identify ways of improving progression for women up the career ladder
• to promote industry careers for women

Who are we

The Science journal Nature organises Nature Debates which are, fully moderated, web-based discussions in areas of current scientific controversy. Nature ensures the highest quality of discussion by:

• Choosing a moderator to oversee each debate. The moderator keeps the debate focused by working on the established Nature principles - independence, quality, broad intellectual appeal, and brevity.
• Enabling Nature's personal subscribers to take part. The debates give a platform for you, the readers, to contribute to an international discussion by emailing your comments to us at debates@nature.com.
• Avoiding repetition. We do not swamp readers with every email we receive. Instead, we will publish a representative sample, selected by the moderator.
• For each debate Nature invites a small group of scientists and other interested parties to discuss a topic of general importance over a six-week period. Short essays from this group form the starting point, and we post two of these contributions each week along with responses and counter-responses from the contributors. We also include a selection of readers' own comments.

Who are we

The UK association for women in science, engineering and technology (SET).
AWiSE is a national organisation with a central Office in London and Branches in the regions.

Our objectives is to:

• promote SET for girls and women, acting as a forum, a network for mutual support, a collective voice, and a centre of information and resource.

Who are we

WiTEC UK is based in Sheffield Hallam University and is funded by European Union and national funding bodies such as the DTI to undertake projects which aim to redress the balance of women studying and working in science, engineering and technology.

WiTEC Aims:

• To increase the number of girls and women studying SET subjects and to help them progress to related careers.
• To develop women's technical and entrepreneurial skills through training initiatives and projects.
• To create information exchanges and networking opportunities for women in SET.
• To promote and support research into areas relating to women in non traditional fields.

Who are we

The Athena Project developed out of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals' ( Now Universities UK) Commission on University Career Opportunity's agenda to remove barriers to discrimination to women in HE at all levels and to significantly increase the number of women in top posts by 2007. Given the particular problems of female representation in the area of SET, this was the focus of Athena. The Project found strong support from both Government and the Office of Science and Technology and was launched in February 1999 by Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and Sir Robert May, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government.

The Athena Project is the most recent UK HE response to the poor representation of women in SET in HE. The 1993 White Paper 'Realising our Potential' stated 'women are the UK's single most under-valued, and consequently under used, human resource'. In 1998, some five years later, when the Athena Project was being set up, the position was little improved: the recruitment of women to lecturer grades in SET was barely increasing and women were heavily under represented at professorial level in physical sciences and engineering departments - 97 out of 3,092 and for example there were no women professors in Civil Engineering. Even in biosciences women represented less than 10% of professors

Project Aims

The Athena Project is a UK wide initiative. The Project's aim is the advancement of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) in Higher Education (HE). To achieve this, Athena works with HE institutions to develop, share, encourage and disseminate good practice and to:

• increase the number of women working in SET (as post graduates, researchers, and lecturers through to professors)
• improve the career development of women in SET (their recruitment, retention, participation, progression and promotion)