mills.edu · Domains · Slashdot Mirror

Getting a CS degree after a liberal arts degree by Ellen+Spertus · 2014-09-16 07:54 · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Any Place For Liberal Arts Degrees In Tech?

I teach in a unique graduate program for students who developed an interest in CS after completing a bachelor's degree in another field, usually in the liberal arts or social sciences. For their thesis, students can combine their old field (if it still interests them) with CS. Our grads have been doing great in the market, although it's probably more because of their graduate CS degree than their undergraduate degree. One built upon her English degree to become a tech writer, but most become software engineers.

Sexiest Geek Alive's page on Gender and Computing by Krishnoid · 2012-01-17 10:24 · Score: 1 · on Tackling Open Source's Gender Issues

Ellen Spertus has a page on gender and computing that includes a link to the ADA Initiative as well as other research she's done and collected on similar topics.

OK here it is: by lawpoop · 2007-09-21 08:08 · Score: 2, Informative · on Berners-Lee Challenges 'Stupid' Male Geek Culture

Alright, I found it. There's has been several studies that suggest that research papers and CVs are ranked lower when they are attached to a woman's name than to a man's:

Not surprisingly, girls at single-sex schools study physical science and math more than in comparable coed schools, "even though girls' schools frequently have less adequate laboratory provision than mixed schools" [Kelly 1982, page 497]
Even more ominously, [Sandler 1986, page 6] reports:

In one study, first done in 1968 and then replicated in 1983, college students were asked to rate identical articles according to specific criteria. The authors' names attached to the articles were clearly male or female, but were reversed for each group of raters: what one group thought had been written by a male, the second group thought had been written by a female, and vice versa. Articles supposedly written by women were consistently ranked lower than when the very same articles were thought to have been written by a male [Goldberg 1968, Paludi et al 1985, Paludi et al 1983]. In a similar study, department chairs were asked to make hypothetical hiring decisions and to assign faculty rank on the basis of vita. For vitae with male names, chairs recommended the rank of associate professor; however, the identical vita with a female name merited only the rank of assistant professor [Fidell 1975]. Anti-female bias is strongest in traditionally male fields [Top 1991, pages 96-97]. Link.

So if you are submitting a paper for publication to a journal, your peers are likely to think less highly of it if the name on it is female rather than male. That's the bias against women in scientific papers, provided that the department chairs and college students in the study act like peer-reviewers for scientific journals.

Such a program exists for both women and men by Ellen+Spertus · 2007-01-16 13:27 · Score: 4, Informative · on The Hidden Engineering Gender Gap

I direct just such a post-baccalaureate program at Mills College in Oakland, California, not far from Silicon Valley. It is coed, although the majority of students are women. Many successful graduates have gone on to industry jobs and CS PhD programs. The application deadline is February 1, if any Slashdotters want to apply.

There was a recent article about the program in the San Francisco Bay Guaridan. For more information, see http://ics.mills.edu and/or contact me.

Such a program exists for both women and men by Ellen+Spertus · 2007-01-16 13:27 · Score: 4, Informative · on The Hidden Engineering Gender Gap

I direct just such a post-baccalaureate program at Mills College in Oakland, California, not far from Silicon Valley. It is coed, although the majority of students are women. Many successful graduates have gone on to industry jobs and CS PhD programs. The application deadline is February 1, if any Slashdotters want to apply.

There was a recent article about the program in the San Francisco Bay Guaridan. For more information, see http://ics.mills.edu and/or contact me.

Re:My only thoughts on this... by fbjon · 2006-07-31 04:48 · Score: 1 · on Fedora Welcomes Women to FOSS

I see your daemon and raise you a more relevant random googlation.

Short backslash preview for new readers of some of the comments below:

Whether or not this is sexist
Whether or not the attitudes of male slashdotters/geeks/FOSS devs is enough to deter females from entering the field (general opinion: yes, probably)
13% of CS PhD's are received by women, 12% of devs are women, but only 2% of FOSS devs are women, what's up with that?
subthreads
relevant links: Women in open source OpenBSD mailing list "Why are there so few female CS's", E. Spertus, 1991

This random quick-recap brought to you by your friendly recapper, second time and running, I have prior art on Backslash.

Carry on.

Looking around a CS Engineering class by djfiander · 2006-07-29 07:26 · Score: 4, Interesting · on Fedora Welcomes Women to FOSS

Man, this crap is old. One can hardly wonder why there are so few women around. Try reading what some women have to say about their experiences in computing. But don't expect too many to out themselves here. And don't point out that Spertus's paper is old and things have changed. This thread just demonstrated that it hasn't.

Re:What kind of projects? by IsoRashi · 2006-06-16 02:36 · Score: 1 · on GNOME Reaches Out to Women

That anecdote sounded interesting, but I have to admit I thought it smelled a little of BS.

Anyway, found a reference to it here (it's a ways down the page, like 4/5 of the way down)... Hofstadter 1986, page 156:

Hofstadter, Douglas R. Metamagical Themas: Questing for Essence of Mind and Pattern. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.

Interdisciplinary skills by Ellen+Spertus · 2006-03-30 12:22 · Score: 1 · on Lowering the Odds of Being Outsourced

Interdisciplinary people are harder to replace. That's part of the reasoning behind the Interdisciplinary Computer Science program I direct at Mills College (in the SF Bay area). The program is aimed at people who have a bachelor's degree in a field other than CS. Our graduates are thus knowledgeable in CS and another field, including knowing how to apply CS to that field. Some popular combinations are CS and business (per the article), CS and education, CS and biology, etc. They're potentially more employable and less offshorable than more narrow computer professionals.

Re:Does it really matter? by dubl-u · 2005-10-12 12:04 · Score: 1 · on Named Innovators/Developers of Color?

Does it really matter who (in the sense of ethnic diversity) writes the OSS code or makes a important innovation?

Yes, for two reasons. The first is societal. Remember the first time you went to some geeky gathering? I had a strong feeling of, "My people! I have found them!" That's a harder feeling to get when nobody there looks like you. Consider Ellen Spertus's take on how it feels to be a woman in CS.

The second reason is selfish: If OSS programmers seems to be drawn inordinately from one ethnic group or gender, it's reasonable to suppose that there are people out there who could be perfectly good OSS programmers who aren't. The more of us there are, the more great software we all get. So it's in all of our interests to make sure our community is as open and welcoming as possible.

Re:Suckers by mboverload · 2005-04-06 01:46 · Score: 5, Interesting · on Star Wars Fans in Line... at the Wrong Theater

From Wikipedia:

Pundits and observers dispute the relationship of the terms "nerd" and "geek" to one another. Some view the geek as a less technically skilled nerd. Some factions maintain that "nerds" have both technical skills and social competence, whereas "geeks" display technical skills while socially incompetent; others hold an exactly reversed view, with "geek" serving as the socially competent counterpart of the socially incompetent "nerd", and call themselves "geeks" with pride (compare Geekcorps, an organization that sends people with technical skills to Third World countries to assist in computer infrastructure development).

Some regional differences may exist in the use of the words "nerd" and "geek". Some claim that on the North American west coast the population prefers the term "geek" to "nerd", while the North American east coast prefers the word "nerd" to "geek" (see Ellen Spertus's page on The Sexiest Geek Alive (http://www.mills.edu/ACAD_INFO/MCS/SPERTUS/Geek/) ). Others on the east coast dispute this, claiming that they have always found "nerd" used disparagingly and "geek" used in a positive light. In Britain, this latter view tends to apply -- "nerd" has more offensive connotations than "geek", which speakers of British English often use affectionately. Compare anorak.

Nerd appeared earlier and at a time when being good at school was not seen as "cool". Therefore nerd is a derogatory word (although some people now consider it a compliment), while geek appeared later and has thus avoided many of the negative conotations. Geek is a milder version and is also applied to to people who are socially insignificant, while nerd is used more with people who are socially inept.

Re:Today's Progressive Views by dubl-u · 2005-01-18 09:28 · Score: 1 · on Harvard Pres Says Females Naturally Bad at Math

It doesn't mean that you can't do something in math if you're a women. Far from it, and I know several brilliant women in the fields of science and math. It's just that it explains the likelyhood of a math or science major being male. It's there, why do you ignore it?

Is that true? It seems to me that it would explain that a smaller proportion of women would be math PhDs, not that a smaller proportion of math PhDs would be women.

But even if that's the case, I can see why women in predominately male fields bristle when this comes up. Why? Because even if it's true that on average men are genetically predisposed to be better at math, bringing that up is often a lazy way out of really looking at the many factors that influence how specific, non-average humans end up in life. A good eye-opener for the Slashdot crowd is CS Prof. Ellen Spertus's paper, Why are There so Few Female Computer Scientists?.

A majority-female program (open house next week) by Ellen+Spertus · 2004-08-12 03:42 · Score: 1 · on Attracting Women Into Computer Science

I direct the Interdisciplinary Computer Science graduate program at Mills College in Oakland, California. We offer a unique set of programs allowing people with a bachelor's degree in another field to transition into CS or interdisciplinary work. About three-quarters of our students are female and only discovered after college that were interested and talented in computing. There aren't many programs specialized to such people, male or female, and they add a great deal to the field, both as straight computer scientists and people with cross-displinary expertise.

Anyway, we're having an open house on Thursday, August 19. See ics.mills.edu for more details.

A majority-female program (open house next week) by Ellen+Spertus · 2004-08-12 03:42 · Score: 1 · on Attracting Women Into Computer Science

I direct the Interdisciplinary Computer Science graduate program at Mills College in Oakland, California. We offer a unique set of programs allowing people with a bachelor's degree in another field to transition into CS or interdisciplinary work. About three-quarters of our students are female and only discovered after college that were interested and talented in computing. There aren't many programs specialized to such people, male or female, and they add a great deal to the field, both as straight computer scientists and people with cross-displinary expertise.

Anyway, we're having an open house on Thursday, August 19. See ics.mills.edu for more details.

A majority-female program (open house next week) by Ellen+Spertus · 2004-08-12 03:42 · Score: 1 · on Attracting Women Into Computer Science

I direct the Interdisciplinary Computer Science graduate program at Mills College in Oakland, California. We offer a unique set of programs allowing people with a bachelor's degree in another field to transition into CS or interdisciplinary work. About three-quarters of our students are female and only discovered after college that were interested and talented in computing. There aren't many programs specialized to such people, male or female, and they add a great deal to the field, both as straight computer scientists and people with cross-displinary expertise.

Anyway, we're having an open house on Thursday, August 19. See ics.mills.edu for more details.

Relevant Article by Nurgled · 2004-08-12 01:54 · Score: 1 · on Attracting Women Into Computer Science

For more about this theory, see Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists? by Ellen Spertus.

A two-year Bay Area CS program by Ellen+Spertus · 2004-08-05 06:33 · Score: 2, Informative · on Northface University - Computer Science in Half the Time?

Mills College (Oakland, CA) has a program with similar goals, although a more academic focus. Specifically, Mills has post-baccalaureate programs for people who already have a bachelor's degree in another field. Graduates go on to industry or to CS PhD programs, such as University of Washington, MIT, and UCSD. The coursework is primarily upper-division undergraduate CS courses, which are taught by faculty with PhDs from top schools, such as MIT, Princeton, and UC Berkeley.

FYI, I direct the program. We're having an Open House on Thursday, August 19, and are still accepting applications and awarding aid for this fall. Contact me for more information.