Just over one in four girls surveyed in single-sex schools currently have access to Computer Science at Leaving Certificate level, according to new research.<\/p>\n
The 2026 I Wish Survey of Female Students’ Attitudes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) found that 60% of respondents identified a lack of confidence in their STEM subject ability as a barrier to pursuing a STEM career, which has risen from 55% in 2025 and 50% in 2024.<\/p>\n
The survey found that two-thirds of female secondary students identify poor gender equality in STEM careers as a barrier, while the same proportion cited insufficient career information.<\/p>\n
I Wish, a not-for-profit initiative aimed at encouraging young women to pursue careers in STEM, said Ireland risks leaving girls behind in the race to build an AI-ready workforce.<\/p>\n
“The growing confidence barrier we are seeing in our surveys is worrying and raises questions about whether girls are getting the support they need,” said co-founder of I Wish Caroline O\u2019Driscoll.<\/p>\n
I Wish co-founder Gillian Keating said we cannot afford to carry today\u2019s gender inequalities into tomorrow\u2019s technologies.<\/p>\n
“Girls must have the opportunity to shape STEM, not simply use it,” Ms Keating said.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the launch of the survey, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said Ireland\u2019s future competitiveness depends on developing the skills the economy needs.<\/p>\n
“Strong growth in demand is projected over the coming four years for digital specialist jobs, yet women make up only one fifth of this workforce,” Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n
“Addressing that imbalance is essential to building the talent our economy needs,” he added.<\/p>\n
In February 2027, 4,000 secondary school girls from across the island of Ireland will attend the 13th annual I Wish 2027 Festival at the RDS Dublin to meet women working in STEM, explore career pathways and experience practical demonstrations.<\/p>\n
The I Wish 2026 Survey of Female Students\u2019 Attitudes to STEM involved 1,660 primary students and 662 female secondary students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over one in four girls surveyed in single-sex schools currently have access to Computer Science at Leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-662679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}