Study of gender perspective in STEM degrees and its relationship with video games

• Women and men do not have the same computer science skills before start STEM degrees. • The interest in computers and video games may influence the STEM enrollment. • There is a correlation between women who play video games and who get better grades. • Women who play video games feel integrated and have similar hobbies to classmates. • The gender perspective vision differs significantly between men and women. At present, even though gender equality is an important matter of public interest, there are still areas in higher education where male presence is overwhelming. We refer to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) studies in general and Computer Engineering in particular where there is only 16% of female presence in Spain. This fact made us think about the reason for this inequality. We attempted to answer such questions by means of a survey filled out by 138 students of STEM university degrees. Thanks to this survey, we have been able to understand the motivations and opinions of the students of STEM degrees regarding gender perspective. Our study highlights the possible influence of computer and video game use on enrollment in STEM degrees. Furthermore, it points out the differences between men and women in computer science skills before they start their studies. The answers provided by the surveyed women showed a correlation between women who play video games and those who get better grades. In addition, women who play video games feel more integrated into STEM degrees. Finally, differences were found in gender perspective between the male and female participants.