Getting women into ICT is important. But entering the field does not necessarily mean that gender stops influencing what happens next.
A 2026 study published in the International Journal of STEM Education examined a particularly interesting mechanism: Gender-Professional Identity Integration, or G-PII.
Put simply, it asks whether being a woman and being a STEM professional feel like identities that comfortably fit together.
Across a cross-sectional study and a one-year longitudinal study involving 344 Computing and Information Sciences students, researchers examined what happens when female students perceive gender bias in their environment.
The findings revealed an important pathway among women: greater perceived gender bias was associated with lower compatibility between their gender and professional identities. Lower identity integration, in turn, was linked to poorer academic performance and weaker aspirations to pursue a STEM career. The same pathway was not observed among men.
This matters because it moves the conversation beyond whether women have access to STEM education.
A woman may already be studying computing. She may have the skills. She may be performing well. Yet the environment around her can still send signals about whether someone like her fits the image of a technology professional.
For HER TECH, this reinforces why belonging cannot be treated as an optional extra. Opening the door matters, but so does what happens after women walk through it.
Perhaps the question is not only:
“Can she succeed in tech?”
It is also:
“Can she be herself and see herself as a tech professional at the same time?”
