Why IT is still a male subject

19th May 2006, 1:00am
Gender inequality in education begins at 16, according to statistics from the Equal Opportunities Commission. Girls and boys study most subjects in roughly equal proportions at GCSE, but after that move rapidly to traditionally male or female subjects. For example, information technology classes at GCSE are just under 60 per cent male but in computer studies A-level this rises to 73 per cent while only 20 per cent of computing degree students are female.