Work has been continuously changing throughout history. The most severe changes to work occurred because of the industrial revolutions, and we are living in one of these moments. To allow us to address these changes as early as possible, mitigating important problems before they occur, we need to explore the future of work. As such, our purpose in this paper is to discuss the main global trends and provide a likely scenario for work in 2050 that takes into consideration the recent changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was performed by thirteen researchers with different backgrounds divided into five topics that were analyzed individually using four future studies methods: Bibliometrics, Brainstorming, Futures Wheel, and Scenarios. As the study was done before COVID-19, seven researchers of the original group later updated the most likely scenario with new Bibliometrics and Brainstorming. Our findings include that computerization advances will further reduce the demand for low-skill and low-wage jobs; non-standard employment tends to be better regulated; new technologies will allow a transition to a personalized education process; workers will receive knowledge-intensive training, making them more adaptable to new types of jobs; self-employment and entrepreneurship will grow in the global labor market; and universal basic income would not reach its full potential, but income transfer programs will be implemented for the most vulnerable population. Finally, we highlight that this study explores the future of work in 2050 while considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges related to gender equality are being researched by different institutions, universities, and companies worldwide. In particular, there are still gaps concerning higher education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Through a Rapid Review, this work aims to present the factors that affect women’s journey in STEM education in Brazil, mainly in engineering and computer science. More specifically, we seek to describe the barriers, motivators, and strategies present in the researched academic literature. Barriers include stereotypes, oppression, patriarchal relations, prejudice, segregation, isolation, lack of support from colleagues and teachers, judgment, fear of mathematics, and mansplaining – the unnecessary explanation made by a man of something a woman says. Motivators include support from the school and teachers, exposure to the STEM area during high school, teamwork, and support from family, friends, and classmates. The strategies to overcome barriers women face in STEM education include exposure to STEM topics, the inclusion of teachers in encouraging and training, role models, participation in technological competitions, a friendly environment, and women participating in technical evaluators’ work. This work presented data revealing women’s challenges in STEM, highlighting existing barriers, motivators, and strategies tested to address the low female participation. This information significantly expands the discussion on this topic, especially in the labor market and education. In our view, quality and excellence depend on an inclusive policy where selection is based solely on merit, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion.

Information about the paper titled "INITIATIVES FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN STEM EDUCATION: THE BRAZILIAN CASE" at IATED Digital Library

Although Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are essential for the development of society, men hugely outnumber women in the majority of STEM fields in higher education, a factor that hinders inclusion and restricts the possibility of having different points-of-view. Previous studies indicate multiple causes of low female motivation in STEM degrees and careers, which inspired several initiatives to increase female interest in STEM. A proven way to captivate an audience to change its attitude is the heroic narrative model, a style of narrative in which a character goes through a sequence of difficulty-increasing and attitude-shaping quests. This paper proposes a heroic narrative model named Heroine’s Learning Journey (HLJ) targeted at counteracting low female participation in STEM courses. In particular, the HLJ model is developed especially for enhancing STEM online courses, by using a narrative that can encourage female students to engage and prevail in them. The HLJ model is divided into three acts, each composed of several stages symbolizing steps tailored to a female student’s development. The model was applied to set up the structure of a preexisting Machine Learning online course with hundreds of enrolled students. Although a first version of the course already presented a higher-than-expected female enrollment per se (≈ 37.3%), with HLJ, we verified an even higher female enrollment (≈ 59.2%), slightly surpassing male enrollments. The feedback provided in learners’ responses to a final, voluntary and anonymous questionnaire, allowed to obtain the degree of satisfaction of participants at the end of the course with the HLJ. The responses indicated that, at the end of the second edition of the online course, students were able to acknowledge the existence of a STEM gender imbalance, and appreciated the motivating nature of the HLJ model. From several student’s feedback and comments submitted in the questionnaire, one can conclude that the attitude-shaping character of the HLJ was greatly appreciated, in addition to the technical content of the course. All these preliminary results are indicative of the usability of HLJ to foster gender balance in STEM online courses. Thus, the present study contributes to STEM Education by leveraging the motivation of young women to enter and prevail in these areas of study.

The gender gap in digital skills and computing persists globally despite initiatives to include women and girls. This work discusses recent initiatives in Latin America, with a special focus on Brazil, that aim to increase women’s access, skills, and leadership in technology. The featured programs have reached thousands of girls with coding workshops, supported hundreds of female computing students, and engaged girls through hands-on technology-related activities. Early evaluation suggests increased interest and confidence in computing careers among participants. Initiatives in Latin America have increased technical skills and engagement among women, but continued cultural change and inclusive opportunities are needed to close the tenacious gender gap in computing.

The Fostering Women to STEM MOOCs (FOSTWOM) project aims to increase the number of women in STEM careers through the participation of young women through free-access Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). One of its actions was the conception of the Heroine's Learning Journey (HLJ), a framework, separated into 12 stages, which employs a heroic narrative to inspire and empower young women, between ages 15 to 21, to persist in their pursuit of STEM studies. This framework is strategically tailored for online learning environments, specifically MOOCs. This study assesses the effectiveness of the HLJ through a survey involving 12 educational specialists affiliated with the FOSTWOM project. Results reveal that in terms of motivation capacity, all HLJ stages received a minimum of 60% positive ratings, and it was pointed out the need for improvement of two stages. Educators can harness the HLJ model to develop MOOCs that cater to gender equality needs within STEM fields.