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Gender gap in computer science
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In the article “When Women Stopped Coding”, David Greene and Steve Henn from National Public Radio speak about the gender occupational differences in the field of computer science (). The field of computer science is currently dominated by men, but the number of women in this occupation had been sufficiently strong in the past until the percentage significantly dropped in 1984 (). Steve Henn explained that reason behind the drop of women in computer science was because of social factors. Henn gave his first example by speaking about a woman named Patty Ordonez. Ordonez was extremely smart in high school but when she entered Johns Hopkins for computer science, she began to struggle in class (). Her struggle was not due to her own intelligence
but she lacked the knowledge that was needed for the class (). Eventually, Ordonez received a C in the class and dropped out of the computer science program (). Ordonez struggled in her class because she did not own a computer (). Owning a computer would have given Ordonez the knowledge, experience, and advantage she needed in the class, but computers were targeted towards boys in her day (). Small home computers were invented around 1984, but the television, radio and newspaper ads for these computers were targeted only at boys (). Because they were sold as toys, home computers were placed for a specific gender and gave them a strong gender preference (). These ads influenced the reason for the purchases of computers and the way they were introduced in the home (). Social influence began giving gender preferences for computers in the 80’s and influenced who was able to use and have them. Media, society, and culture influenced the decline of women in computer science in the 80’d because of gender inequality. Because of the media’s influence on computers through television and ads, women were not as socially accepted and able to pursue careers in computer science. This gender inequality was also displayed through gender associated television shows and ads, as well as the lack of access that women had to computers in 1984.
In the article How to be a “Women Programmer” by Ellen Ullman, she talks about how
...roblems of integration. If the science world takes advantage of undiscovered female talent, science as a whole will benefit greatly. For example, the original group of ENIAC programmers consisted of 6 women. In 1946, these women helped to develop the first operating stored-program computer.6 If female talent such as this goes to waste because of social neglect, the science world will never know what possible discoveries that could have been made with the help of women. If Dr. Djerassi is accurate with his examples of discrimination, the science world should take note of these problems and attempt to solve them.
In an excerpt titled "The Feminist Face of Antitechnology" from his 1981 book Blaming Technology, Samuel C. Florman explains why he thinks so few educated women in modern society are engineers. The excerpt was written shortly after he had visited an all-female liberal arts school, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, to convince a few young women to become engineers. His mission failed and his essay makes clear why he had such trouble.
The once male dominated, corporate, "white collar" America has seen a phenomenal influx of women within the last thirty years. Although a female lawyer, physician, or CEO is no longer considered a rarity in our times, women still face quite a deal of oppression in comparison to their male counterparts. In retrospect, some professions have always been controlled by women, and men have not made a noticeable advance in these fields. In 1970, finding a female lawyer to represent you would be a difficult task, since less than five percent of the profession were women. Today, that number has risen to almost thirty percent. The percentage of female doctors has almost tripled in the course of thirty years. African Americans have not made such a conspicuous progression within the last fifty years, while women have made a tremendous impact on the corporate world. One may wonder, how did women make these extraordinary advances? For the most part, it is due to the education they receive. At the present time young girls are encouraged to enroll in classes dealing with math and science, rather than home economics and typing. As pointed out by Nanette Asimov, in her essay "Fewer Teen Girls Enrolling in Technology Classes", school officials are advocating the necessity of advanced placement, and honor classes for teenage girls, in both the arts and sciences. This support and reassurance than carries over onto college, and finds a permanent fixture in a woman’s life. While women are continuing their success in once exclusively male oriented professions, they are still lacking the respect and equality from their peers, coworkers, and society. The average male lawyer, and doctor make twenty-five percent more money than their female equivalent. Women have always lived with the reputation of being intellectually inferior to, and physically submissive to men. This medieval, ignorant notion is far fetched from the truth. In 1999, high school men and women posted similar SAT scores, being separated by a only a few points. In addition to posting similar scores on the SAT, the average males score was a mere two-tenths of a point higher than an average females score on the ACT. Even though a woman maybe as qualified as a male for a certain occupation , women receive unwanted harassment, and are under strict scrutiny. A good illustration of this would be the women represented in "Two Women Cadets Leave the Citadel.
In 1790, Judith Sargent Murray submitted her essay, On the Equality of the Sexes, for publishing in The Massachusetts Magazine. Her essay called for women’s rights through education. Murray’s belief that women “are endowed with the qualities of imagination, reason, memory, and judgment” (Murray 177) aided her argument and showed that women deserve an education like their male counterparts. Furthermore, her evidence and rational explanation of the Creation Story, a chapter in the Christian Bible, solidifies her argument of equal education in a time when some of the population took the Bible at face value. There are limits to Murray’s progressive education beliefs, which can be viewed as being a product of her time. On the Equality of the Sexes
STEM, also known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is the field that is advancing at a rapid rate. Within STEM, there are many occupations across the four fields. As years go on, more and more people start to have a growing interest in STEM, but this can’t be said for women. Women almost take up half of the workforce, but when it comes to STEM, women only take about 24%, almost half of the women aren’t participating in STEM. The numbers continue to get worse. From 2000 - 2009, the numbers have remained at a constant 24%. At this rate, employers could potentially see a decline in women’s representation, but there have been efforts to change this rate (Beede et al par. 6). This could mean disastrous problems in the world as more problems will arise and there’s nothing to be done because companies are non-diverse and
According to Microsoft Research, “By 2018, there will be 1.4 million open technology jobs in the U.S. and, at the current rate of students graduating with degrees in computer science, only 29% of applicants will be women.” The fight for women has been going on for more than 100 years and women today continue to face discrimination in daily lives. An important person in fighting for women’s rights was Betty Friedan, who was born on February 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois. A writer, feminist, and women’s rights activist published her book The Feminine Mystique in 1963 that began her journey of fighting for women’s rights. The idea behind the book Race presents important pillars that apply
Over the past 20 years the number of women in the fields of math, science and
STEM is best known as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM for many years has been primarily seen as and stereotyped into a masculine work field. But as of recent years, while it expands, more and more women have been rising in these fields. However, there is still a tremendous gender gap between men and women in these fields and areas of work. The gender gap between men and women in STEM is alive and well. There is no denying that the gender gap between men and women in STEM is immense. But there instead are many sufficient reasons as to why there is such a huge gap between men and women within in fields. Some probable causes for the lack of women seen in these areas are biased towards women, unconscious bias girls receive
“Women have talent and intelligence but, due to social constraints and prejudices, it is still a long distance away from the goal of gender equality” (Pratibha Patil). A common misconception that is prominent in many modern day ideologies, is that gender does not have as much of an effect on workplace experience as it did several decades ago. This is untrue. “Most occupations remain skewed toward either men or women” (Jacobs 32). This occupational gap is an unmistakable reason for men and women being treated so vastly differently. Many people tend to believe that after women gained the right to vote and became eligible for many workforce positions,
Carol B. Muller, “The Underrepresentation of Women in Engineering and Related Sciences: Pursuing Two Complementary Paths to Parity.” National Academies Press (US); Web. 2003.
With technology rapidly changing as fast as we blink our eyes, it is important for people to learn as much as possible about the computer world if they want to maintain a decent lifestyle because the world we live in revolving around those technologies. As McKee points out, “most jobs now require intelligence and technical skill” (1). Each year, there is something either added or modified to computers, which forces people to learn computer literacy at a steady pace. While some love computers, others despise them. When comparing people’s attitudes towards computers, statistics show a gender gap that proves most females’ attitudes are drastically different from the attitudes of males. Several studies prove that women not only lack an interest in technology, but they also chose not to enroll in computer classes. Since computers and technology play an enormous role in the world today, more technology professionals are needed. It is extremely important for more women to become knowledgeable in these areas. Swain and Harvey argue, “This technology gender gap is affecting half our population and causing it to be unprepared to contribute to the demands of a high-tech twenty-first century” (17). While this may not seem like a serious issue to some, it is an issue that will ultimately lead to a bigger problem if not handled immediately. So why are there so few women in the technology field? To answer that question, I must first find out why are there so few women in the technology and computer classes, considering that this atmosphere is the most common place where the interest for computers is born.
however that is not to say all women reject ‘geek culture’, nor that computer science is universally coded as masculine. In Malaysia women are well represented in computer science student numbers.
Us dept. of labor. “Computer Programmer.” Occupational outlook Handbook. 2013-2014 ed. Indianapolis: Jist. 2013. Print.
...cs. In the years, the country has started to realize the injustice it has been doing females in the field of mathematics. I believe that in the future these biases and disadvantages will be a thing of the past. Females have the mental capability to perform on an equal level with all respected and distinguished male mathematicians, but first social pressures and stereotypes must be eliminated.