By C. May
FORT COLLINS, Colo.— The stereotypical computer science student is nerdy, male, white, and doesn't talk to girls.
And the stereotype is largely true. “90% of the computer science department fits the geeky guy stereotype. It's awful,” says Laura Adams, a computer science student at Colorado State University.
While undergraduate-level engineering programs have come a long way in terms of gender equality, computer science departments are lagging behind. The number of women in computer science is declining.
When asked why numbers were dropping, women say there is a stigma about computer science. They feel that most computer science students are “nerdy gamers,” and many women don’t identify with that.
Studies suggest that women just don’t get exposure to the field. Video games are generally designed to appeal to men, and they inspire many men to study computer science. Programming isn’t often taught in schools, so it is difficult for women to get experience with it before college.
It’s often easy for women to feel inferior. “I think a lot of women feel like it’s too hard for them when they have to work at it,” Adams says. “It’s a self-confidence issue.” This self-confidence issue can discourage many women from continuing in the program.
Programming languages and graphical interfaces are the two main parts of a computer science degree at Colorado State University. Programming languages are a family of ‘languages’ used to write programs that control a computer or other machine. The graphical interface is the layout and design of the program that appears on the computer screen.
Studies suggest that programming languages are subtly tailored for men, since men wrote them. Adams, however, disagrees. “It’s just text on a black background,” she says, “and the language is just abbreviated English. It’s about as gender-neutral as anything can get.”
Several female computer science students reported prejudice from male students in the department. When the women asked a question or didn't understand a concept, they were often told, “It’s because you’re a girl.”
Male teachers, however, are very supportive. One student told me that a high school programming teacher encouraged her to study computer science. “It’s mostly just the other students that are sexist,” she says. “The teachers are always helpful.”
Tom Siller, the associate dean of the Colorado State University School of Engineering, says, “I try to encourage women to pursue careers in engineering and the sciences. We really need them.” The field is a relatively new one, so it is still open for women. Engineering, Siller says, is a very elitist field. But that atmosphere isn’t present in computer science yet.
The relative newness of the field does have its drawbacks. The general population isn’t aware of all the jobs available in the computer science field. “Most people think I’m going to work in tech support,” one student says. Another says that her family thinks she will make video games. “Ultimately I’d like to be developing software,” Adams says. “But I’ll probably be working on things that most people don’t even know exist.”
Computers are becoming a bigger part of our lives. Young children now spend time on the Internet and own cell phones. Does this mean the interest in computer science degrees will spike when today’s children go to college? Students answer with a unanimous no. “Technology is so easy to use now,” a student says. She suggested that modern children know how to use computers but don’t really know how they work.
Another student agrees that modern technology will turn students away from computer science. “They’ll find out how much work it takes to make things easy to use,” she says, “and they’ll be disappointed.”
The demand for computer scientists, however, will increase. Computers are in phones, watches, cars, and dozens of other things. “If you look hard enough, you can buy books, clothes, chalkboards, and absolutely anything else with a computer in it.” Siller says. “The demand for programmers is definitely going to go up.”
What, then, do schools need to do to attract women to computer science? The students have answers for that as well. “Students need more exposure to programming in high school,” a student says. “Learning HTML and making flash videos isn’t computer science.”
Another student suggests adding programming to current high school curricula. “It would fit in well with science programs,” she says, “It’s all analytic thinking and problem solving.”
Adams loves her degree program at Colorado State University. “I think computer science would be a good fit for a lot of women,” she says. “It's a lot of fun."
I thought that this story was really interesting and informative. I thought that you had excellent quotes that really demonstrated the point of the story. I also thought that it was a different idea for a diversity story which also made it very interesting. I thought that the ending was very appropriate and strong. The story was organized well, and was easy to read. The only thing that I was wondering about, is that for some of your quotes you don't have names you just say the students said this. I understood completely what was meant, but I just think that maybe you should have included the names in the attribution. I especially liked the part when Adams was saying that this is one of the most gender-neutral subjects out there. It's really interesting that while that's true so few women participate in the program.
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