Giving Women the Access Code

New York Times ^ | April 2, 2012 | KATIE HAFNER

[reaganaut1]

...

[Computer science] students are overwhelmingly male. In 2010, just 18.2 percent of undergraduates in the field were women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics — in spite of gains in chemistry, biomechanical engineering and other so-called STEM fields (the acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

“It must be the unique area of science and technology where women have made negative progress,” said Nicholas Pippenger, a mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd, who is married to Dr. Klawe.

Dr. Klawe and others say the underrepresentation of women in the field is detrimental in a larger sense. Computer science, they say, is as vital to propelling society forward in the digital era as mechanical engineering was in the industrial age.

“If we’re not getting more women to be part of that, it’s just nuts,” Dr. Klawe said. At Mudd, she continued, “we’re graduating 20 female computer science majors a year, and every one of them is a gem.” In 2005, the year before Dr. Klawe arrived, a group of faculty members embarked on a full makeover of the introductory computer science course, a requirement at Mudd.

Known as CS 5, the course focused on hard-core programming, appealing to a particular kind of student — young men, already seasoned programmers, who dominated the class. This only reinforced the women’s sense that computer science was for geeky know-it-alls.

“Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with,” said Zachary Dodds, a computer scientist at Mudd. “We realized we were helping perpetuate that by teaching such a standard course.”

To reduce the intimidation factor, the course was divided into two sections — “gold,” for those with no prior experience, and “black” for everyone else.

[rlmorel]

This woman spoke at my graduation...enjoyable speaker, and very talented too...

All this stuff about women in the sciences is complete and total BS. If women want to go into the sciences, there is not only nothing to stop them, there are scads of benefits to encourage them.

This "Women are discouraged from entering the sciences" is the Via Dolorosa of the feminist movement...or at least just one of them.

I am sick and tired of seeing it. Sciences is one of the few areas where you can still be judged on your ability, and faking it is difficult in some aspects and impossible in others. If you can't do the math, you can't do it. If you can't code...you can't do it.

[ican'tbelieveit]

I, female, managed to “survive” the physics barrier, it was rough. Intentionally so, I think. Years ago I had a female classmate majoring in chemistry, I believe, that changed her major to physics during her first year. She excelled at it, thrived, really.

[JenB]

Actually from my personal observation a lot of the women who dropped out of engineering degrees, especially computer science, could do the math. What they couldn’t do was see a way to have a career in the field and a family. In comp sci if you let your resume get five years out of date, that’s it, you’re done. Taking time off for a kid can be career killing. Or even downgrading to fewer hours is tough. This is an industry where 60 hour weeks are not uncommon. It’s hard to do that and be a mom and contrary to what feminists say, most twenty something college educated women do want kids.

It’s hard to look at all the hard work you’re doing and say “I guess this is going down the toilet in five years”. It’s discouraging.

[the invisib1e hand]

Women good, white men bad.

[GeronL]

“Giving” it to them?

Shouldn’t they work for it like everyone else?

Real sciences have no need for affirmative action

[agere_contra]

Nice post.

IIRC she invented the term ‘computer bug’, from a literal encounter with one.

[xsmommy]

i think it has far less to do with gender than just how your brain is wired. My husband and i are both lawyers, neither one of us was cut out for a scientific field. i was pre-med my first year of college, but i knew getting Cs wouldn’t get me into med school, so i switched. my brother is a ChemE and while no smarter than I am, he gutted his way through a year behind me. Maybe i could have scraped my way through in engineering, but it wasn’t what i was interested in. Though i have to say those i respected most of my law school classmates were those who were engineers, there were only a handful of them, but to be adept at language and math/sci is a bit more rare.

[jdege]

Known as CS 5, the course focused on hard-core programming, appealing to a particular kind of student — young men, already seasoned programmers, who dominated the class. This only reinforced the women’s sense that computer science was for geeky know-it-alls.

The idea that someone will be able to succeed as a programmer without enjoying programming for its own sake is patently absurd.

It's not that any professional programmer must be able to handle "hard-core" programming classes, any effective programmer must relish this sort of material. It's part and parcel of being a programmer.

[whd23]

“If we’re not getting more women to be part of that, it’s just nuts,” Dr. Klawe said.

QED

[BJ1]

I’m sure the article could have been written the exact opposite way. Women dominate X field and Y field. Men are losing ground.

Of course that must be okay, since you never hear of such things! But since more women graduate college now, and men do dominate certain professions, it only stands to reason that there are female dominated professions. Women are spoiled in this country. It would be nice to see somebody say it. Women can do what they want to do. They can work and be at par with men. Or they can stay home and raise a family. All the while the popular culture reinforces how special women are. Is it asking too much for society to acknowledge how lucky the modern woman is?

[FourPeas]

Oddly enough, 25-ish years ago when I worked in an IT dept of 300+ people, the majority of programmers & analysts were women. At the same time, at the area universities it was a pretty even split between men and women in the classes.

I wonder what changed. (Maybe I should click?)

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Why would a woman want to enter a STEM field when she can make more money for less work in traditionally women-dominated fields such as education and nursing?

[camle]

i fail to see the point in convincing peopel to go into fields for which they have no interest nor inclination - what ever their grnder. isn’t it far better to encourage people to do what thet want to do?

[MrB]

“Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with,”

Couldn’t be that, in general, a female’s brain “wiring” is not conducive to being attracted to the thought process that meshes well with computer programming? No?

Oh, wait! I get it! Computers were designed by males, so the way they operate is inherently “sexist”!

[dfwgator]

The leftists want it like it was in the former Soviet Union, where your career path was already decided for you by the State, by the time you were 10 years old.

[JenB]

Actually, my younger brother is getting a free ride to nursing school. They’ve got a huge shortage of men there. The way they’re tossing money at him reminds me of my experience in computer science.

But other fields, nope, there’s no extra incentives to see equal representation for guys.

In grad school I got an extra fellowship. All us American girls got the same one. And my African-American female friend got one that was twice as big. We made lots of jokes about it... but you know, it enabled us to live in safer apartment buildings than where our male classmates were living and it might just have made the difference to some of us in whether or not to go.

[FourPeas]

I’m green with envy. I never had the pleasure of hearing Adm. Hopper speak live. I had several opportunities, but always learned about them too late to take advantage.

[dfwgator]

This woman spoke at my graduation...enjoyable speaker, and very talented too...

Do you still have your "nanosecond"?

[glorgau]

This is an industry where 60 hour weeks are not uncommon

I sure as heck don't work 60 hours weeks. Maybe twice a year. I do muse over things quite a bit though... perhaps that is billable ;-)

[FourPeas]

any effective programmer must relish this sort of material

Indeed. But getting caught in infinite loop dreams s*cks.