Slashdot Mirror
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.)
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.
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.