The Forces Driving Women Out of Computer Science - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/business/16digi.html?adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1226800900-dlFIEuaFUWsKj4J+ka5gbw

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.


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