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Attracting Women Into Computer Science
Frisky070802 writes "U.S. News & World Report has an article about attracting women into Computer Science. '...That sense of isolation and inadequacy is one reason the number of women earning computer science degrees in this country has plummeted over the past two decades--with women dropping from 37 percent to 28 percent of graduates--at the very moment their presence in other scientific and engineering disciplines has soared. 'You look at the national statistics,' says Rick Rashid, senior vice president of research at Microsoft, 'and you just have to be appalled.'' It describes how some companies have even started summer camps to attract high school girls into high tech."
For those interested in encouraging women to become involved in Linux (and computer science), there is an interesting HOWTO.
Raj Against the Machine! http://social-butterfly.appspot.com/
Working from home (as a guy) is just about as bad for your image. My mate works in a "real" job (IT manager for the county), so she pokes fun at me for being the one staying home. I get to watch the cat, change the laundry, accept packages arriving (for her) ... and yeah, pretty much everyone around me asks if I work. Apparently to work, you not only have to have income from it, you also have to have an office away from home. (I fully respect "homemakers" for the work they do, particularly if there are lots of kids at home ... but then, I vacuum and do the dishes, and wouldn't have it any other way. If one of us weren't employed, we'd still split the chores.)
Many boys are given legos. Many girls are given dolls.
The old nature/nurture debate - do girls become girly because we treat them so?
Well, ask a parent. Let me tell you, it really changes the way you see this issue. Girls and boys are different in their behaviours, very different, from an early age.
Heh yeah, my wife is the head computer tech at a small computer shop. She told me a story where a man came in and kept insisting that he talk to a tech, I guess assuming she was a secretary or something.
Oh well... I mean shit happens, and there are a lot of dicks out there, but I really don't think it's anything we should concern ourselves with trying to force. Change will come, just as people are more used to seeing female doctors these days, they will eventually get used to seeing women in computers.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Personally, I think the key to interesting more women in any high-tech, high-science job is to get them interested when they're still in elementary school. What if we sent more speakers into the schools to show (all) the students the possibilities? If you show them that math and science can be fun and interesting, and can be used to do really good things, when they're young, it'll help alleviate the stigma against being in science when they're older. I know--when I was in seventh grade, the last thing I wanted was anything that would make me seem geekier. Younger kids don't face quite the same demeaning peer pressure.
Live free or die
Most of my friends (High school times) were nerds, we had all spent quite a bit of time around computers at a young age. Our fathers pulled us down into the basement and showed us a few commands in DOS or whathaveyou and our interest was born. Now, maybe it is our job as the next generation of computer users to make sure that our female children (If we manage to reproduce) have the same opportunity to feel that strange joy of exploring and understanding our machines. This isn't something that should be pushed onto High school girls.. or put into college magazines. This is something we have to do on our own. Our children will create what we don't have the ability to make before we die. Investing in stocks are ya? Try spending a bit more time with that bright eyed daughter of yours. Might come out better than any money you could have made staring at a stock price graph.
"Aim a little lower"?
I'm already staring at their chest... maybe you should say aim a little higher?
<eddie murphy>It's just jokes baby!</e>
I remember when I was in High School, and when I graduated and went to a tech college (still there, going to 4th year) I heard a lot about this. My mother worked in the guidance office for a while when she got bored staying at home and shared a lot of interesting things.
One of the biggest things she saw was the advice given to these girls. Some of the guidance counsellors hesitated to suggest girls pursue technical interests. My high school is better than some, a fairly high ranking (nation wide) public school, and we're better than the majority of schools as far as this kind of thing goes, but it still happens. If the good high schools have guidance counsellors who hesistate to support the girls' interest in a technical field, what kind of message is that giving them?
High school girls (and of course younger) are constantly being told they don't have what it takes to make it in the tech world. It's often quite subtle, or even good natured such as guidance counsellors trying to help. But the result is that these girls have the idea impressed upon them that technology is not a field they should pursue. In high school they're pushed towards the honors and AP liberal arts classes, as opposed to the sciences like biology (always had the most girls though), chem and physics. The math department in my school was fairly homogeneous as were the AP science courses, but when it came to honors or electives you didn't see as many and I know people who came from other schools who said there were hardly any girls in AP math and science courses.
The industry has obviously shown it would love to have them, and the universities are trying to entice them, but I think most of the things preventing more women from entering technical fields are happen at a young age.
Presently here, but not there.
Why do we need any percentage of male/female for anything or everything? When the phonecompanies still used operators, it was women who were better in handling all these calls. They were better in 'multitasking' then men were.
Actually, originally, all phone company operators were male. Back then, women weren't allowed to work at all. But when all the men went off to war, they realized someone had to keep the phones working, so interestingly, phone operators were one of the first fields women were permitted to work in, simply out of necessity (that is, there were no men around to do the job, and it was an essential service).
But you're right that women have in fact evolved to be better multitaskers than men.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
But girls and boys are treated differently by those around them from birth. Parents describe baby boys and girls differently, even if objective measurements don't show a difference. Toddler boys and girls are praised and criticized for different behaviors. Cf. Stern and Karraker, ``Sex Stereotyping of Infants: A Review of Gender Labeling Studies''. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 20 (1989) 501--522.
A typical quote: "Parents responded more positively to girls than boys when the toddlers played with dolls, and more critically to girls than boys when the toddlers engaged in large motor activity."That's not true. If you end up as "the friend", it's probably because the girl didn't find anything that interested her in having a relationship with you. I've had friends who I've ended up in a relationship with. I've had friends who I didn't end up in a relationship with, despite their interest. But I've never ended up in a relationship with someone who *wasn't* a friend first.
Democratic Party needs food badly.
Oh Madison is transgendered? Is that what you're trying to say? Doesn't make her any less of a woman.
Can't dig a tater hole in IT without finding transgendered folk. Can't visit transgendered IRC channels without the discussion turning to computers/Linux/Uniz etc every once in a while.
That computer you're posting on would not exist without the efforts of this woman http://www.lynnconway.com
Go visit the site and learn something.
And yes, I'm transgendered too, though I'm not a professional IT/programmer/tech type person.
Chess was widely taught in schools in the ex-USSR and now in Iceland too. Both to males and females. Still, males clearly outnumber females.
I have to say most of the people I know who can actually enjoy chess are males. Most females I know don't like it. It's a fact.
I'm a decently rated chess player and dude... not only females are not discriminated. They're worshipped. Females who do decently are considered an example and get higher promotion for their ranks than males.
It's clear that chess doesn't appeal to women. Possibly because they're not very good at it, that's just a conjecture, but they obviously don't like it as much as males in the average.
I was not arguing against the fact that there exist some arbitrary social influences that keep women from joining CS. There may or may not be, I don't know. What I was arguing against was the statement that it is necessary that those be the _only_ influence on whether women go into computer science, and that there could not possibly be any other reason (genetic or otherwise) that could plausibly explain it.
I used the chess example because I was writing for an audience that probably doesn't have much faith in human biodiversity. Showing pictures and graphs concerning the distributions of activity in grey matter in newborn girls and boys might have been more convincing for some, but not for those who are just vaguely aware of that "fact" that men and women are entirely mentally equal but not so firmly set in it that they won't ignore a bit of common sense. Those who are already dedicated feminists probably wouldn't have responded well to anything.
For the record: I do not think it is a bad thing to motivate women to join computer science. There's nothing wrong with that goal at all. However, I do think it is unfair and impractical to hand positions over to a woman if a man is better qualified, and I think most would agree with me on that. What I am really objecting against the spreading of dissinformation about the differences between men and women in an attempt to get women to join computer science. It's a good end, but with the wrong means. Frankly, I think women should be insulted that those who are trying to attract women into CS think that women are so stupid that they must be lied to about the reasons why women don't join computer science. If the truth is less influential, so be it, but at least it's the truth.
I am quite aware of Lynn's background and her contribution to technology. She transitioned in 1968, lived stealth until '99, and has been married to her partner of many years for quite a while now. There can be no doubt as to her contributions as a woman. As a trans-female she is no different from a bio female that has undergone a hysterectomy. If you want a fascinating journey, have a look at her website, www.lynnconway.com