Women in computing

Abstract

Career stereotyping and misperceptions about the nature of computing are substantive reasons for the under-representation of women in professional computing careers. In this study, 15 women who have work experience in several aspects of computing were asked about their reasons for entering computing, what they liked about working in computing, and what they disliked. While there are many common threads, there are also individual differences. Common reasons for choosing computing as a career included: exposure to computing in a setting which enabled them to see the versatility of computers; the influence of someone close to them; personal abilities which they perceived to be appropriate for a career in computing; and characteristics of such careers which appealed to them. Generally, women working in the field enjoy the work they are doing. Dislikes arising from their work experiences are more likely to be associated with people and politics than with the work they do --- and they would like to have more female colleagues.

Images of self and others as computer users: the role of gender and experience

“…Identifying as a member of a discipline has been noted as an important factor in persistence in mathematics, engineering and certain science fields, disciplines that have a gender composition similar to computer science (Packard & Wong 1999; Teague 2002). Identification with a discipline is partly the result of how one perceives other people within that discipline and an appraisal of whether one is or is not like them.…”

An Analysis of the participation of women in Information and Communication Technology courses at State University of Maringá (UEM)

“…Some researchers have investigated the aspects influencing the women's quitting of the ICT area [5,6,7,8,9,10,11], and according to their findings, several factors contributed to this drastic change. Among them are gender stereotypes that lead women to choose more traditional careers, such as Medicine, Administration and Law, since they are perceived as being more appropriate for women.…”

A study in engaging female students in computer science using role models

“…Many initiatives that aim to inspire girls do so by having students meet real computer scientists, like Microsoft's Digigirlz [6], Carnegie Mellon's Women@SCS Roadshows [9] and The Digital Divas programme in Victoria, Australia [12]. Other programmes do not rely on the role models actually being present -using video for example [16,17] -this experience, though more remote, is more easily scaled and disseminated. Still additional research shows that changing objects in a computer science classroom or laboratory from being stereotypically computer science-like (i.e., interpreted as male; such as Star Trek posters and video games) to more neutral items (e.g., nature posters) raised female students' interest in computer science to levels comparable to that of male students [2].…”

“…Of these schools, 50 were secondary/6th form schools (meaning students attend them from the ages of [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Eight were 6th form only (education from [16][17][18], seven were secondary only (from 11-16), one school was primary/secondary (from 5-16) and three offered education for all age groups from 5-18. There were 62 state schools and seven were independent.…”

“…In this paper, we describe our recent contribution to these effortsa 60-page 'fun' booklet, published in May 2010, aimed at secondary school students (ages [14][15][16][17][18]. The booklet tells the stories of contributions made by women in computing, and gives some examples of the research accomplishments made by contemporary women who have devoted their careers to computing.…”