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 ...
The same thing that’s forcing every white male out of information technology in the U.S. — outsourcing. I laugh every time I see these “hot jobs” lists that have network or IT analyst on the top of the list. That’s only true if you have an H1B or are a twenty something with an M.S. who wants work for a few bucks over minimum wage. Try re-entering this field if you are over forty and have been laid off, it’s damn near impossible here in Ohio at least. The big bucks and plentiful job opportunities died when the dot com bubble burst.
I hesitate to put this out there, because I’m sure it will offend some, but I think I know.
I held a computer related job for all of a few short months out of school before I realized that there was no way I could do it day after day. The work itself wasn’t particularly difficult. However, I quickly realized that I did not have the personality to sit in a cube, by myself, and watch progress bars all day long. Back then, it was code for 10 minutes and watch the computer compile for 15. It was hell. It’s no job for an extrovert, even a male one like myself.
IMHO, more women than men are people persons. With few women being introverts, it’s no surprise that few of them are drawn to more solitary professions.
It’s a brain thing. To be really good at computer science requires your brain to work a certain way. Not that many men are wired that way, and even fewer women.
My guess is that as “information technology” or “information systems” degrees become more widespread, they suck up some of the women who want to do databases or similar things - not “real” computer science - who would have majored in CS years ago.
I really enjoyed being a woman in CS. It was so nice to not have to deal with female politics and nonsense.
It is what was expected in the framework of the worldview of the founders of our country.
It’s not so much that women don’t want to be seen as nerds; it’s that they are not nearly so nerdy as men are.
Mind numbing repetitiveness of the tasks, projects that are the moral equivalent of nailing jello to trees, late hours, dark/dank corner (of the basement) offices, 24/7 on-call, finally giving in to the dark side and seeing what the HR receptionist actually takes home in his/her paycheck, re-usable code that isn't.
Those are a few of my favorite things.
Mainly, I think that women are smarter than men, when it comes to stuff like quality of life (spelled.... having a life).
/johnny
Women like to talk and socialize at work,,I swear. I am a woman and hated that,,all they do is talk, gossip and have dramas.
That would be hard to do in computer work.
Just my opinion.
My company's HR department is still mostly white. There are ten staff, one is a gay man, one is Hispanic female, one is black female.
We've learned that a call from HR is bad news 99% of the time.
Calling Lawrence Summers. Calling Lawrence Summers.
The field is saturated in the States and most of the work is contracted out to India.
As for the woman shortage, my take is that as Object Oriented Programming (OOP) has become dominant in CS, the number of women has decreased. There is something about OOP that makes it very intuitive for men, but leaves women in the dust. Computer programming is also very unforgiving—it helps if you are detail oriented and obsessive. Its your logic versus the computer/compiler. You also have to keep current, as things change very rapidly. I see a lot of women who can do HTML fine, but fail when they try to make the leap to Java or Java Script.
The courts have seen to that.
The underlying cause is mathematical inclination. The increase in females in other sciences and engineering is real, but far smaller than the article suggests when one corrects for the degree of mathematical rigor required in a discipline. Many of the engineering degrees for women are in "softer" engineering disciplines, like industrial and environmental engineering -- EE and ME numbers are still low. Although Physics is better now than it was in my PhD year (1 woman in a candidacy class of 17) it's still about 1 in 5, and mathematics is still in the 20%'s. This is offset by biological and other less mathematically demanding science options. Chicks -- statistically, not individually speaking -- just don't dig math and pure logic.
Maybe women don’t give a s*** about computers? Does that mean we now have to force enough women into that field to reflect a 50/50 or 51/49% of the population? (Hope Obama doesn’t read this.)
There’s never been many women in Computer Science.
As a junior in high school, my son was all set to head off to college to get a comp/sci degree. he liked computers and had ideas about following in dar ol' dad's footsteps...sorta.
Then one day about midway through his junior year he said, "I think I'm going to go for a degree in nursing. I like the medical field and I can write my own ticket right out of college. Plus it can't be off-shored."
That's my boy said that. He's happy as a clam in his second year in one of the best nursing programs in the country.
The people just don't understand us in IT.
“Compared to what profession? Where is the evidence for this?”
Ever been in a room full of computer geeks? Try mentioning anything, anything at all, and watch them all geek out and turn the conversation into an engineering discussion and ego party.
Mention something as benign as “I had to get new tires on the truck this weekend” and watch them delve into the cost ratio of their tires versus the mileage expectancy versus the “stiction” on snow, and…blah…blah…blah. They have to be right and no matter why you bought your tires you were wrong and should have called them first ‘cause they are there to help. Hell, the want to help so bad they nearly hump your leg if you give them 2 seconds of attention.
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