Thursday, November 13, 2014
11/20/14 Smallish Post 6
A major factor that tends to encourage women to computer science, according to Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing, is to connect programming to other fields. I found this section particularly interesting considering it is actually one of the reasons I continued in computer science. Programming is now such a versatile skill that it can be used in almost any field. I personally am planning on being an analyst instead of a developer with my future career. This summer I completed an IT analyst internship at General Mills in Minneapolis and I found it an appealing use of my knowledge of programming without actually programming all day. In the book, it was discussed that women are often discouraged from computer science because they feel they will just sit in a cubicle alone all day coding without human interaction. Since the numbers for women in computer science are declining, I believe the best method to remedy this is to focus on what can be accomplished by computing and what opportunities in other fields come as a result of computer science degree.
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I agree. Informing women about all the different roles that a Computer Science degree can be used for will bring more women into CS. In general, the limited knowledge that people have about CS is alarming and I think that those girls that are thinking about a career that will help them "make a difference in the world" do not even think CS could be a possibility when in fact it is probably the one degree that could help someone have the greatest impact on people.
ReplyDeleteI am all for women in computer science, but what is the concern that the numbers for women in CS are going down. Perhaps it's just something that woman are less likely to be interested in or it's a fad that woman don't do computer science that might change. I don't think we should try to convince women to do computer science if the natural tendency is for them to chose something else. Just let it happen. As a man, no one ever told me "hey you are a dude, you'd like computer science" and I said, "really? ok i'll major in that!" It was something I investigated myself and chose myself. this graphic is really facinating:
ReplyDeletehttp://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/chalabi-datalab-flightattendants-2.png
It says that 2.6% of dental hygienists are male and that 21.5% of Software Developers are female. Why isn't it ever mentioned that it's a "problem" that basically no men go into dental hygiene? Ok this wen way longer than I thought, but my point is. There are reasons, both cultural and simply due to interest, why women are less likely to choose CS. Is that a problem? No I don't think so.
I think that you have an interesting point. If we want computer science to appeal to more women maybe we need to change how we advertise the major. If we focus on all the different opportunities that are opened with a degree in CS maybe more women would join. Along with more women maybe more men as well because the number of CS majors altogether has been declining.
ReplyDeleteMany people think that all you do with a CS degree is program all day. Good for you for finding something you enjoy that is related to programming but not programming all day
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