Wanted: Geekettes
By Kay Steiger - Nov 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pmThere’s an interesting piece in The New York Times today about the lack of women in computer science. While women are actually starting to approach parity in other hard science fields like math, and engineering, there are fewer women in computer engineering classes at places like MIT than there were 25 years ago. In other words, the number of women in the field is actually dropping. The article concludes that the reasons are varied and rather intangible, but one contributing factor could be stereotypes about men and women set at an early age:
Justine Cassell, director of Northwestern University’s Center for Technology & Social Behavior, has written about the efforts in the 1990s to create computer games that would appeal to girls and, ultimately, increase the representation of women in computer science. In commenting as a co-contributor in a new book, “Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming,” Ms. Cassell writes of the failure of these efforts, “The girls game movement failed to dislodge the sense among both boys and girls that computers were ‘boys’ toys’ and that true girls didn’t play with computers.”
She said last week that some people in the field still believed that the answer to reversing declining enrollment was building the right game. Another school of thought is what she calls the “we won” claim because women have entered computer-related fields like Web site design that are not traditional computer science. Ms. Cassell points out that it’s not much of a victory, however. The pay is considerably less than in software engineering and the work has less influence on how computers are used, and whether this actually accounts for the diminishing numbers of female computer science majors remains unproved.
Ms. Cassell identifies another explanation for the drop in interest, which is linked to the pejorative figure of the “nerd” or “geek.” She said that this school of thought was: “Girls and young women don’t want to be that person.”
Cassell believes it has a lot to do with stereotypes. I definitely think that’s part of it. Interest in these fields develops at a young age, and if young girls are taught that computers are for boys, then they probably won’t engage with them. But there’s more to it than just stereotypes.
As I wrote in one of my three articles on women in academia last spring for Campus Progress, part of the problem with getting women to go into science, especially academic science, has a lot to do with mentorship. There’s a lot of reason to believe that women simply don’t get the support that’s needed to be competitive in academic sciences. There are few women to serve as role models and mentors. One way that a group of women in academic sciences approached this was to be peer mentors to one another, gathering every other week to talk about academic and career goals. This kind of mentorship becomes especially important in fields that are so heavily dominated by men.
As a non-traditional female just entering into the computer science field, I find everything about it overwhelming! I have a background in biochemistry (BS & MS) and computer science is (obviously) totally different, I feel like I am having to “retrain” my brain. Reason I chose to do this, is because all fields are becoming more computer-oriented, and with the vast amounts of data being churned out in research labs, I think that having a background in “natural” science and research along with computer science would be valuable.
Unfortunately where I live, I am unable to take classes at the colleges in town - they don’t offer night programs, so I am taking on-line courses (which is a different topic altogether). However, I feel very alone in all of this - I have no mentor, no programming contacts. It’s just me and the professor on the other end that most of the time answers my questions regarding the programminf assignment - but never acknowledges any of the “cries for help and support” that I send out. I do feel that I would be more confident in this decision if I had a mentor of any kind - female would be great - just someone I could talk to about my decision and thoughts. I’ve tried emailing contacts in “admissions” for the program, and I am basically told what classes I need to have and that according to my transcripts, I am good on paper.
As a non-traditional student, I am also concerned with “being too old” for this. And really wish that computer science was introduced to me at a younger age…or even how applicable it is to biology/chemistry when I was working on my undergraduate and graduate degrees (I went to your basic public university for undergrad, not heavy in tech or engineering, and a smaller private university that is considered “liberal arts” with medicine & law programs for grad school).
I feel that I have rambled off topic a bit…but I will say I have been told by more than one person - even close “friends” that I shouldn’t go into computer science, that it was a “boy’s field” and that girls should stick to “softer” sciences and heath care. This makes me feel even MORE isolated in my decision to pursue this field!
November 24th, 2008 at 12:06 pm