Posted on 11/15/2008 8:33:25 PM PST by neverdem
Digital Domain
ELLEN SPERTUS, a graduate student at M.I.T., wondered why the computer camp she had attended as a girl had a boy-girl ratio of six to one. And why were only 20 percent of computer science undergraduates at M.I.T. female? She published a 124-page paper, “Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists?”, that catalogued different cultural biases that discouraged girls and women from pursuing a career in the field. The year was 1991.
Computer science has changed considerably since then. Now, there are even fewer women entering the field. Why this is so remains a matter of dispute.
What’s particularly puzzling is that the explanations for under-representation of women that were assembled back in 1991 applied to all technical fields. Yet women have achieved broad parity with men in almost every other technical pursuit. When all science and engineering fields are considered, the percentage of bachelor’s degree recipients who are women has improved to 51 percent in 2004-5 from 39 percent in 1984-85, according to National Science Foundation surveys.
When one looks at computer science in particular, however, the proportion of women has been falling. In 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate degrees in computer science went to women. By 2004-5, the number had declined to only 22 percent. Data collected by the Computing Research Association showed even fewer women at research universities like M.I.T.: women accounted for only 12 percent of undergraduate degrees in computer science and engineering in the United States and Canada granted in 2006-7 by Ph.D.-granting institutions, down from 19 percent in 2001-2. Many computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates.
In 1998, when Ms. Spertus received her Ph.D. in computer science, women received 14 percent of the doctorates granted in the field...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I was in HR....it’s like working for the GOVERNMENT!!!
You must have a copy of the "dragon book" at hand. In 1981, I was fascinated with computer graphics. I purchased a copy of the current Foley & van Damm book, integrated a TI graphics chip into my Heathkit H-8 and proceeded to code up a complete library of routine in C. I didn't a real commercially built, graphics capable machine until Radio Shack coughed up the Color Computer. I also integrated an General Instruments sound synthesizer to play with sound generation technology. It was fun stuff.
COBOL was very cool when it was new. Until then people had to use machine language (ever programmed on and offs into a switch register?), assembler language (bleah!) or Fortran (a very mathy language) to do business programming. COBOL allowed people who could think logically but were not quite so bit and byte oriented to break into the computer programming field. I still speak fluent COBOL, although I think Pascal is my favorite batch-type language.
Personally, I think women tend to enjoy application system design and analysis because it requires more social interaction than working with operating systems and infrastructure.
Just explain to me why women have to be represented in EVERY SINGLE career field in high numbers? People are so fixated on percentages and if they personally think they ‘aren’t right’, there’s something wrong with the profession.
Why aren’t people freaking out that more women are graduating college than men? Isn’t there a problem? Who gives two sh1ts about the fact men’s percentages in graduate degrees are going down?
How bout the male nurses? Men that work in non-profit groups? Men who work in ANY female-dominated area. Treated like crap by the women in the profession, largely, and picked on by both sides for being in such a field or job.
Apparently the guy’s file system is FAT.
Jerry: "They're the worst!"
Within the boundaries of my very small country there are exceptions. I love my wife and my kids. But in one category I make no exceptions: I really do hate everybody else's kids. And my first wife. But then, we've exchanged gunfire, so ya know... there are some things you just can't take back...
At my job, women outnumber men; and blacks (especially black women) are disproportionately represented. It just happens, and the reasons are numerous.
FWIW I would like to see more hot chicks being represented at my job (and neighborhood). That’s a demographic we’re shamefully short of.
Certainly. I do a fair amount of real time DSP that starts as MATLAB scripts. My colleagues diddle with various approaches until they are happy with the results. Making the algorithm play in an embedded system is my piece of the puzzle. Right down to designing the hardware and firmware to accomplish the task.
Suffice to say that I do a brisk business with Amazon and Borders to keep my book shelf stocked with the right references. I've had to add radar titles to my shelf in recent weeks. I have to advance my skills in that arena way beyond my First Class Radiotelephone license w/SHIP's RADAR endorsement. That dates back to 1977.
"We're looking for families that like to live in tubes and push buttons!" - Firesign Theatre
I personally believe it's very much a Freudian thing. Programmers are bottom dwellers. "It is worth remarking that the genitals themselves, the sight of which is always exciting, are nevertheless hardly ever judged to be beautiful" - Civilization and Its Discontents
Going to the HR office is like talking to the government.
Ha! Congrats (The RADAR endorsement is the real one). The Microchip conference in Scottsdale every July may be fun for you.
The answer is simple. The business gets credit for hiring women and hiring blacks. It fixes two demographic numbers with a single hire.
Hmmm!
Life would be grand if I could just get a 6LoWPAN stack and Chipcon 2430 driver for Zena (the PIC Zigbee support tool). The radar design has to run on 2 AA batteries for 30 days...including the networking.
Computer Science is hard. Not just hard, head splitting hard, when done right (we’re talking compiler design and 400 processor’ thread synchronization here, not Java coding or webpage design). There are a few women that really love it. There are a few men that also love it. But there are a lot of men that know that will have to pay the bills, and they study it, love it or not, instead of something easier. Women just don’t have such a strong social pressure to put the bread on the table.
I received a BS in CS in 1986. I had a B+ average. The main reason I completed the degree at age 44 was that my advisor and the head of the CS dept told me I couldn’t do it. I got zero help and encouragement from them. In fact my advisor tried to insult my intelligence enough to make me give up. Needless to say I never gave him the time of day after that. However, most of my Professors encouraged me since I was the oldest woman they had ever taught.
The first CS class I took 20 out of 30 washed out at the mid-term. I got a lousy grade also but hung in there and ended up with a B in the class. I never used the CS degree but I did get a lot of satisfaction out of it. If I could do it most anyone could do it.
Your name isn’t Gary is it?
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