Gender disparities in Greek computer science PhDs

Spanning more than four decades—from 1983 to 2025—this study examines the evolving landscape of gender representation and field specializations among Computer Science PhDs in Greece. By curating and analyzing a comprehensive dataset of 2,474 doctoral dissertations, we aim to uncover the temporal shifts, institutional variations, and the persistent influence of gender stereotypes on women's academic paths. Our findings expose a profound historical disparity: throughout the 43-year period, women comprised only 21.85% of PhD recipients, while men accounted for the vast majority (78.15%). Although these figures highlight a significant long-term gap, they also reflect a complex and gradually shifting trajectory of female participation in the Greek computing ecosystem. But in the field of women’s admission to the programs, the numbers of women have actually increased, from only 10% in 1983-1987 to its maximum recent figure of 31.68% in 2023-2025. This upward trend is additionally confirmed by the linear regression, with a linear regression slope of 0.51% per year (p<0.01, R2 =0.93), meaning the trend is clear as we keep progressing on the gender parity curve. In close analysis of field-by-field distribution, we may see various interesting patterns. Female participants in interdisciplinary Computer Science fields are much more numerous. So, for example, Informatics in Education/Health has a total female representation of 35.48%, and Bioinformatics a female representation of 35.03%. On the other hand, traditional technical areas of research remain male dominated. The network and system sectors have a gender participation rate of 16.03%, while Algorithms and Data structures had a female participation rate of 16.34%. The chi-square test (χ2 =65.7, p = 0.001, df =10) indicates that there is a significant relationship between gender and field choice and indicates that gender stereotype that prevails strongly leads women to select fields to the extent that these fields are considered to be more productive or “less “technical.” Institutional discrepancies also play their part heavily. At 30.11%, female students also responded to the study at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, thus showing that a university policy and institutional climate (or institution) directly affect recruitment and retention of the female PhD students. Further, the research revealed that there are some specific time ranges where we are looking for strong trends: as we can see from higher growth in Informatics education and health (0.75% annually), and Bioinformatics (0.68% annually) than we look at the more technical subjects. Overall the results collectively emphasize the absolute relevance of tailored interventions against the long standing gender deficit within the Greek Computer Science PhD programmes.