Understanding and overcoming the gender gap in computer science education.The information technology revolution is transforming almost every aspect of society, but girls and women are largely out of the loop. Although women surf the Web in equal numbers to men and make a majority of online purchases, few are involved in the design and creation of new technology. It is mostly men whose … whose perspectives and priorities inform the development of computing innovations and who reap the lion’s share of the financial rewards. As only a small fraction of high school and college computer science students are female, the field is likely to remain a “male clubhouse,” absent major changes.
In Unlocking the Clubhouse, social scientist Jane Margolis and computer scientist and educator Allan Fisher examine the many influences contributing to the gender gap in computing. The book is based on interviews with more than 100 computer science students of both sexes from Carnegie Mellon University, a major center of computer science research, over a period of four years, as well as classroom observations and conversations with hundreds of college and high school faculty. The interviews capture the dynamic details of the female computing experience, from the family computer kept in a brother’s bedroom to women’s feelings of alienation in college computing classes. The authors investigate the familial, educational, and institutional origins of the computing gender gap. They also describe educational reforms that have made a dramatic difference at Carnegie Mellon—where the percentage of women entering the School of Computer Science rose from 7% in 1995 to 42% in 2000—and at high schools around the country.
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Written in 2003, this books is still—sadly—just as relevant today.
The problem is that while the information technology revolution is transforming almost every aspect of society, girls and women are still largely left out of the loop. They participate in the dominant global industry as guests, by invitation, or by compromising their values, goals, and ethics.
It’s a serious accusation, one that proves itself through research based on interviews with more than one hundred computer science students of both genders from Carnegie Mellon University over a period of four years, coupled with classroom observations and conversations with hundreds of high school and college faculty.
The conclusions? That unless we change the way that we educate our children, there will always be a gender divide in the most important area of twenty-first century life. And women will always be on the wrong side of that divide, the have-nots in the real power centers of our culture.
IN THE BEGINNING…
Margolis and Fisher found that “as early as kindergarten, girls use the computer skillfully for writing their stories, but boys race to the computers for free time and play.” It appears that, from the moment the computer is first introduced into children’s lives, it is seen as a tool by girls and as an end in itself by boys.
And then there is the home environment. “Overall, the women we interviewed had done less hands-on exploration of the computer than the men. They gave fewer accounts of working beside their fathers and more stories of watching from the sidelines. Computing and tinkering had not been their main childhood activities or focus but one interest among several.” In fact, the authors go so far as to describe what they call a “father-son internship,” pointing to studies showing fathers playing with their sons 50% more than with their daughters, with the inevitable unfortunate results.
ADOLESCENCE: THE PLOT THICKENS
At this point, the researchers shift the blame almost completely onto the schools, and with apparent good reason. Computer science curricula reflect boys’ interests and experience levels, and girls, it seems, may adapt or leave.
In computer classes, “girls were perpetually teased about their bodies, their appearance, and their competence. The male teacher did not intervene on behalf of the girls. One of the women students asked the teacher why he always used football examples; he replied that she could do the programming assignments on anything she wanted. At that cue, a male student turned to her and mockingly said, ‘Do it on sewing,’ which drew laughs from the other students. (…) None of the high school girls enrolled in Computer Science 2 went on to enroll in Computer Science 3.”
And then there’s the issue of competition. Boys are observed to race to find the solution; girls take time out to help others get there as well. Boys want to play games with a clear winner and a clear loser; girls want to play games that leave everyone feeling good. We can all see where these two divergent tracks are going. Computer science classes in American public schools are geared to reward the former and punish the latter. It’s no mystery that there are limited female enrollments in university computer science programs. The wonder may be that there are any at all.
COLLEGE DAYS
“We have found that women decide to major in computer science based on a broad set of criteria (…) For many male students, in contrast, the decision to major in computer science barely reaches the level of conscious consideration; it is a natural extension of their lifelong passion for computing.”
That broad set of criteria included in many cases a care for making positive contributions. One first-year student at Carnegie Mellon, Louise, describes a lecture: “Everyone just said how boring it was: ‘Who cares that computers did not benefit anyone? We like computers! We love computers! We know computers! And who cares about the rest of the world?’…. And if you’re trying to make something that’s going to change the world, that’s going to help the world, you have to have some sort of concern about what’s your long-term goal. Not just to produce Word 8… or Excel… whatever. How is this helping? Or is it helping? Go see if that stuff is doing anything.”
The researchers have some suggestions for the future: “Can a creative person, a ‘people person,’ care about the world and people and be happy in computer science? While the stereotype says no, a broader vision of what the field is and how it is best taught answers in the affirmative. Computing can be taught in an interdisciplinary setting, honoring the goal of ‘solving the world’s problems.’ Furthermore, this does not require devaluing the single-minded pursuit of technical virtuosity that marks some of the best computer science students. Instead, it establishes multiple standards of excellence…”
In other words, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. The problem is that, even in a field as relatively new as computer science, milestones for excellence are established early and thereafter written in stone to protect the old-boy network, no matter how recently established. There is never just one way to do things, as programmers, of all people, surely should know.
DREAMING IN CODE
It is not just in the way that computers are perceived that draws a line between the genders; the way that men and women in the study use computers differed dramatically. “When we asked students, during their first interview, to describe their computer science peers, both men and women responded with the same image. They described a person in love with computers, myopically focused on them to the neglect of all else, living and breathing the world of computing, ‘at the computer 24/7.’”
This is not, by and large, women’s style of working. “One-third of the male students we’ve interviewed say they differ from the stereotype, that they have a broader range of interests than just computing. But twice as many women (more than two-thirds of those we interviewed) feel different from the stereotype. And 20 percent of the women we interviewed question whether they belong in computer science because they feel they do not share the same intensity in focus and interest that they see in their male peers.”
Fisher and Margolis note that “attrition of women from computer science has been a significant problem both at Carnegie Mellon and nationwide.” So how can there be change? What can be done to end the leaky pipeline?
TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE
The absence of women in computer science has tremendous societal implications. Just as the original Star Trek series didn’t notice anything wrong with the use of “man” as a generic term, so too do we not notice that there is more in this issue than our easy assumptions that girls just don’t like math and science and computers as much as boys do.
The absence of women in computer science is, in fact, a social justice issue. Just as we are starting to understand the implications of the digital divide between those who have access to technology and those who do not, so too do we need to understand the implications of the hierarchy within that technological framework and acknowledge that there is a clear gender divide there as well.
The authors suggest that we need to begin “changing the conversation in computer science.” To challenge parents and teachers to reinvent the view of computing presented to children of both genders. To urge industry leaders to compete to enlist the talents of women as well as men in innovation and design.