Debugging
the Gender Gap

Amila Welihinda
ID: 1506924
Ms. Jorgensen, Ms. Hallford

“I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.”

President Obama, Hour of Code

“What is true is … that our lead will erode if we don’t make some good choices now”

“We’ve got to have our kids in math and science, and it can’t just be a handful of kids. It’s got to be everybody. Everybody’s got to learn how to code early.”

The Numbers

“Computer science is the only field in science, engineering and mathematics in which the number of women receiving bachelors degrees has decreased since 2002.”

Larson, Why So Few Women Are Studying Computer Science

-Gregory Ferenstein, VentureBeat

Essential Question

Why do few women participate in the field of computer science, and who does their aversion affect and how?

What methods can be used to increase the number of women in the field and what will the effect of this increase be?

Consultant

Experience

  • Girls from 4th to 12th grade
  • Instructors
  • Observations
    • Some were inherintly unintersted
    • Project based approach

Sources of Influence

  • Parents
  • Media

Parents

  • Early influence
  • More likely to give boys computers
  • Carnegie Mellon University Study
    • Women CS majors describe watching parent using computer (Fisher)

Media

  • Image of stereotypical programmer
    • Do not feel like this is their identity
    • Geek/Brogrammer stereotype, Anti-social, bad Heigine, dark room, energy drink

Who is affected and how?

  • Women
  • Tech Companies

Tech Companies

  • High demand, low supply of programmers, demand will triple in a year (Jocelyn Goldfein)
  • Lack of diversity can be reflected in the product (Philips)
  • Low supply due to gender gap
  • Diverse backgrounds and thinking will help with solving problems (Philips)

Women

  • Restricted benefits of High Earning Job, Stock Option Packages (Cassidy)
  • Flexibility: "You can do computer science with pretty much anything you're passionate about.", Maria Klawe: President Harvey Mudd, computer scientist
  • Expression for creativity
  • Algorithmic thinking

Bridging the Gap

  1. Universities
  2. Companies
  3. Organizations

Universities

  • CS is a general education requirement at many colleges (Philips)
  • UC Berkley
    • EECS “Introduction to Symbolic Programming” changed to “The Beauty and the Joy of Computing”
  • Harvey Mudd
    • Divided CS classes into three levels of experience (Larson)
    • 40% of its CS majors are women

Tech Companies

  • Google
    • Aims to influence popular culture
    • Improve representation of girl hackers in Hollywood
    • Influence HBO to add two female characters to Silicon Valley TV show (Larson)

Organizations

  • Girls Who Code, She++
  • Hold conferences for women in technology
  • Teach computer science and programming to young women
  • Use media to spread awareness

Potential Policies

  1. Fund Non-Profits
  2. Strategies to increase appeal
  3. Affirmative Action in Colleges

1. Funding for Non-Profits

  • James Cohoon
  • Professor of computer science at the University of Virginia
  • Recieved funding from National Science Foundation (NSF)
  • Program grew to over 150 students, 33% female
  • National Level

2. Increase Appeal

  • Carnegie Mellon, Berkley (Larson)
  • Division of CS classes, achieved 40% (Larson)
  • “The Beauty and the Joy of Computing” (Larson)
  • CS departments only be funded
  • Total of 50 M provided
  • Enforced by states

3. Affirmative Action

  • National level
  • Title IX
    • Prohibits sex discrimination in education
  • Ms. Russlynn Ali
  • Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights
  • Fund colleges that balance gender gap, 50 M
  • National Level

Non-Policy Solutions

Role Models

  • Marissa Mayer
  • Meg Whitman
  • Sheryl Sandberg

Parents Provide Opportunities

  • Early exposure to computers

Service

  • Made curriculum
  • Hands on learning experience
  • Offered demonstrations and help
  • Overall, provided a comfortable environment for young women to learn CS

Answer to Essential Question

Part 1
Why do few women participate in the field of computer science, and who does their aversion affect and how?

  • Early influence of parents
  • Exposure to computers
  • Social stigma
  • Inherently uninterested
  • Women
  • Tech Companies
  • America

Part 2
What methods can be used to increase the number of women in the field and what will the effect of this increase be?

  • Increase the appeal
  • Provide comfortable environment to learn in
  • Affirmative action, other policies
David Culler, Chair of Department EECS UC Berkley, Compter Scientist

“Today, two and a half billion people are connected to the Internet”

“There are more cellphone users than toothbrush users...look at how intrinsic information technology is to all aspects of society and all aspects of modern life.” How can we leave out women?

Bibliography

Cassidy, Mike. "Women Missing out on Lucrative Careers in Computer Science." - San Jose Mercury News. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2015. .

Larson, Selena. "Why So Few Women Are Studying Computer Science." Readwrite. N.p., 2 Sept. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. .

Fisher, Allan. "Undergraduate Women in Computer Science: Experience, Motivation and Culture." School of Computer Science: 3. cs.cmu.edu.html. Carnegie Mellon University. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. .

"Computer Scientist Salary in Silicon Valley, CA." Computer Scientist Salary in Silicon Valley, CA. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. .

Ferenstein, Gregory. "The High School Gender Gap between Math & Computer Science Is Huge (in 2 Graphs)." VentureBeat. N.p., 07 May 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. .