Career Priorities and the Challenge of Recruiting Women to Computing

Abstract

Philip Sadler holds a B.S. in Physics from MIT and an Ed.D. from Harvard. He co-authored the first integrated computer and laboratory introductory calculus course in 1975. He has taught middle school mathematics, engineering, and science and both undergraduate science and graduate teaching courses at Harvard. His research interests include assessment of students' misconceptions and how they change with instruction, K-12 curriculum development, the transition to college of students who wish to purse STEM careers, pre-college engineering, and the professional development of teachers. Dr. Sadler has won the Journal of Research in Science Teaching Award, the American Institute of Physics Computers in Physics Prize, the American Astronomical Society Education Prize, and the American Association of Physics Teachers' Millikan Medal. He holds five patents and begun three companies. Materials and curricula developed by Dr. Sadler are used by an estimated fifteen million students every year. Dr. Gerhard Sonnert, Harvard UniversityGerhard Sonnert is a Research Associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an Associate of the Harvard Physics Department. He received master's and doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Erlangen, Germany, and a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University. One of his major research interests has been the impact of gender on science careers. This research has resulted in two books (both authored with the assistance of Gerald Holton): Who Succeeds in Science? The Gender Dimension and Gender Differences in Science Careers: The Project Access Study. Misconceptions, lack of awareness, and lack of accurate information about computing occupations may lead women to reject or fail to even consider a career in computing. We document the compatibility between computing occupations and the shared and gendered career priorities of undergraduate college students. To assess students' career priorities, we analyze data from the Persistence Research in Science and Engineering (PRiSE) project, which surveyed 7505 undergraduates across the United States. Then, we use occupational data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics to demonstrate that computing occupations offer many of the features that women identify as being important to their future career satisfaction. This type of information is needed to inform the teachers, counselors, and parents who advise young women, and to enable young women themselves to make informed choices about whether to pursue a career in computing. Finally, we discuss actions that educators and others can take to build women's confidence in their ability to succeed in computing, and to counteract the stereotypes of computing that are most likely to deter women from considering a computing career.

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