Less than 1% of girls choose to study Computer Science at A-Level

Women in STEM

Girls now comprise less than a tenth of Computer Science students in the UK, with 0.4% of female pupils choosing to study it at A-Level.

In comparison, nearly 5% of boys studied it at that level, according to the Department for Education's report on take-up of academic subjects in 2017.

This disparity is similar for other STEM subjects, like maths, where the ratio of girls studying it drops to 18.1% compared to 33% of males.

Though girls made up more than half of A-level students in 2017, boys formed 56% of tech-level students - equivalent to A-levels - and 57.9% of tech certificate students.

Professor Robert Stevens, head of the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, wrote on the university website: "Computer Science is a good choice for anyone who wants the means to give vent to their curiosity, imagination and creativity."

Women comprise 24% of the Computer Science staff at Manchester, which Stevens called "unusually high" for a UK university - but not high enough, saying: "I'd like this number to be even higher; for Computer Science in the UK we do well in terms of numbers of women, but I want to do much better."

The university's page on career prospects reports that the number of graduates with Computer Science skills is dropping worldwide, but that the demand and potential earning capacity for graduates are high.