Women in computer science

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

<p>I'm wondering about the experience of women in computer science in various college programs--what is the environment like and why do you think there are so few women compared to many other STEM fields?</p>

2

<p>What you mean compared to other STEM majors? I don’t think there are that many women in mechanical engineering or electrical engineering for that matter. It’s a stigma of these fields that they’re perceived as masculine. Computer science is actually a fairly gender neutral field of study in reality, if you get over the “glass-wearing male nerd coder” stereotype.</p>

3

<p>Other than some people being initially surprised to find out my major (or to see a girl in their CS class), I generally haven’t been treated any differently than other CS majors are treated.</p>

<p>As for why there aren’t many women in CS, I think a lot of it comes from some kind of stigma that it’s only for guys. I know there have been quite a few people (mostly other women, to my surprise) who are shocked that I’d go for a “man’s major”. In that sense, it may be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: Women think that they shouldn’t major in CS because of the amount of men that major in it, leading to fewer women majoring in CS and maintaining the high male:female ratio.</p>

<p>As Reactor said, other than stereotypes CS is a very gender-neutral field. I mostly get the kind of reactions mentioned above when talking to non-STEM majors.</p>

4

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<p>Probably in comparison to biology, which is the largest STEM major and one where women are the majority of students now.</p>

5

<p>I know my daughter loved, loved, loved her department at Brown, although there were only 6 or so women in the 45 person class. It is just a great department with lots of research going on and tons of interaction with faculty and grad students. She worked with a young upcoming female professor on a long term research project. She was very happy with the department collaborative culture. I don’t know about life of female students at her big state U grad school because it just hasn’t come up.</p>

<p>When she was thinking of a physics major, some prof was trying to gauge her inherent aptitude and interest in how things work by asking if she tinkered with car engines as a teen. Well that is something that a lot more boys are going to have an opportunity to do. Being a child of a single mother in an urban environment, that was just not something she was going to be exposed to.</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon managed to radically even out the gender imbalance when they started looking at different criteria to admit girls to CS because they recognized that they may not have the obvious backgrounds to demonstrate aptitude as boys did.</p>

<p>Apologies in advance for any stereotype offenses.</p>

<p>I think women come to CS by a circuitous route compared to men. They often don’t have anything to do with gaming or coding or hacking pre-college like a lot of men do, and don’t necessarily come from a geek culture, so it just doesn’t occur to them. And the stereotypes of dorks holed up in Mom’s basement doesn’t help. Mine had virtually nothing to do with computers aside from a short lived simple website she made in jr. high. What she did have is strong aptitude in math and exposure to science research in high school. I think if more girls had that early exposure you’d get more girls in STEM.</p>

<p>There are also discussion and evidence about how girls outperform boys in high school and if they are good in math, science and English they just may be more interested in English and history. There are discussions about that somewhere here.</p>

6

<p>It’s not just in comparison with Biology.</p>

<p>According to slightly out of date info from the NSF,
“In 2007, men earned a majority of bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering, computer sciences, and physics (81%, 81%, and 79%, respectively). Women earned half or more of bachelor’s degrees in psychology (77%), biological sciences (60%), social sciences (54%), agricultural sciences (50%), and chemistry (50%).
Among fields with notable increases in the proportion of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women are earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences (from 30% to 41%); agricultural sciences (from 37% to 50%); and chemistry (from 41% to 50%).
Women’s share of bachelor’s degrees in computer sciences, mathematics, and engineering has declined in recent years”</p>

7

<p>I saw that info about Carnegie Mellon’s efforts, though I think that many schools don’t admit separately for CS majors, so I don’t think girls not meeting entry requirements would be a reason for the difference. All the programs would have introductory classes. </p>

<p>As far as early exposure to stereotypes go, I think that is a factor, but it doesn’t seem to be deterring women from getting degrees in chemistry or geology.</p>

8

<p>The following white paper discusses gender imbalance in computer science and HMC’s approach to the issue:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/about1/administrativeoffices/officeofthepresident1/strategicvision1/presidential-white-papers1/women-CS.pdf[/url]”>http://www.hmc.edu/about1/administrativeoffices/officeofthepresident1/strategicvision1/presidential-white-papers1/women-CS.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;