Differences in perception of computer sciences and informatics due to gender and experience

Low participation of women in Computer Science (CS) has been documented in some countries. Given thatthis phenomenon occurs at the Computer and Information Sciences Department at the Universidad de CostaRica,   we   decided   to   investigate   if   there   were   gender   differences   in   some   factors,   both   motivating   andinhibiting students to enter the field.   Our main purpose  was to see if those  differences could help findfactors   influencing   theimbalance   of   female   participation.   Both   graduate   and   undergraduate   populationswere   investigated.   It   was   found   that   there   were   differences   by   gender   in   both   populations.     As   aconsequence of the knowledge of the discipline acquired during the permanence in the CS program andprofessional experience, both men and women change differently their perceptions.