Tailoring Elective Courses to Enhance Women’s Participation in Computing

Women remain underrepresented in computing programs globally, despite the growing relevance and reach of the field. This study investigates how elective class offerings may influence women’s participation in undergraduate computing, analyzing 49,710 enrollments across 272 electives at nine institutions in Europe and North America. Using hierarchical Bayesian modeling, we identify gender-based patterns in class selection and show that women are more likely to enroll in electives related to human-computer interaction, ethics, and applied software development. These findings suggest that elective preferences can serve as a diagnostic for broader curricular design. By aligning core and elective offerings with diverse student interests, particularly in socially relevant and human-centered computing, institutions may improve equity and significance in computing education.