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2008-11-19 05:54:03
"From yesterday's New York Times: ' What Has Driven Women Out of Computer
Science?' In many US universities, over the past decade, there has been
deliberate effort to integrate and encourage women and girls to get more
involved in the 'hard' sciences, engineering, and math. However, instead of the
proportion of women to men increasing, in Computer Science the opposite is
actually true. Specifically, in 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate
degrees in computer science went to women. Now many computer science
departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest
undergraduates. What's going on here, folks?"
The OP echoed my own thoughts (geeks scaring off the girls), but the "real"
reason is because women are cool and computer science is not. ;-) They simply
aren't attracted to that type of work. And there's nothing wrong with that.
You ever wander past the Health & Human Development part of your college?
It's like an engineering class in reverse - 40 women; 2 guys. (I knew I picked
the wrong major.) Men and women are not that same. Men migrate towards "things"
and women migrate towards "humans", each dominating their respective
engineering & health majors. They don't think the same and they have different
interests. Why can't people just accept that?
well... yes. Sexual harassment is a huge issue for female students/workers. One
girl to a dozen guys, you're going to get hit on, a LOT. Even after I got
married, I still got chatted up left and right (don't guys check for rings
anymore?) and I really don't like it. It feels like the only reason half my
co-workers talk to me is because I'm the only one with tits in the place... not
because I'm smart, not because I can code with the best of them, not because
I'm funny, or cheerful or anything else.
The "OMFG BOOBS! Let's go talk to them" effect creates a really hostile
environment, which causes many of us to change majors/jobs... which makes women
even more rare, which makes the next set of boobs even more rare... vicious
cycle.
"don't guys check for rings anymore?"
Why bother? With divorce and infidelity so popular these days, who cares about
a piece of metal on your finger?
BTW, I'm not the harassing type. My workplace seems mercifully free of that and
reasonably well balanced (for a software house). Just my observation on modern
society.
One girl to a dozen guys, you're going to get hit on, a LOT
Really? This is about the ratio in my undergrad courses, but that doesn't mean
you need to socialise with your peers. Most of the people I knew socially as an
undergraduate were English students (now they seem to be linguists or
physicists). It's not like you get much of a chance to hit on anyone in
lectures, since you're meant to be paying attention to the lecturer, and once
you're outside lectures the gender ratio is the same across campus, it isn't
tied to your subject.
The "OMFG BOOBS! Let's go talk to them" effect creates a really hostile
environment
You know, not every time a guy talks to a girl is a come-on. Generally I would
talk to people outside lectures who were standing by themselves looking bored,
or who were part of a group already engaging in an interesting conversation.
Whether they were male or female didn't really enter into it, but if you want
to interpret this as hostility then there's a good chance you might be part of
the problem.
We raise girls to be nurturers and boys to be tinkerers. Small children are
all given little dolls, which act as security blankets. But when little girls
get their next toy, it's another doll. A little boy will get a toy truck, or
car. The girl gets the Barbie dream house. The boy gets the lego set. We define
gender roles for children from the time they are small, then are amazed when
they don't break out of those roles.
If/when you have children, you will understand just how false this is. I can't
tell you how many times I am personally shocked, and my friends who are also
parents are also personally shocked, at just how innately different boys and
girls are. And it's not just my own kids, but it's all kids.
Another thing I found shocking is just how unreceptive children are to parents'
attempts to define roles for them. They really are there own people, and that
goes from about age 0.5 onwards. Go ahead. Try to give your male child a doll.
Last time I gave my son a doll, he was about 1 year old. He threw it around for
a while, then smashed it repeatedly with a hammer. Try giving your little girl
a toy gun. She'll put it to bed and tuck it in and give it a kiss good night.
In our house, my wife and I do not encourage traditional gender roles. But man,
oh man, do they sure happen on their own.
You personally might not encourage traditional gender roles, but the culture
around you, including friends, relatives and the media, probably does.
Why do they pick and choose industries to focus on. No-one raises a stink about
shortage of female garbage collectors.
And I haven't heard a big push to increase males in areas dominated my women,
e.g. elementary education.
Actually that does hit the news every so often, usually in relation to the
daemonisation of men seeking to work with kids.
Males are in decline, leaving the traditional female sectors even more to women
for fear of being branded "too interested" in working with children etc. Some
folks are decrying it because kids won't have any male role models left. I
think it's just what you get when society consumes itself with frivolous fears
and scares itself with a new pretend evil each week.
Comes of people being comfortable and having nothing to really be afraid of,
they have to invent or inflate stuff.
Women's brains may be 10% smaller (Brain Size [wikipedia.org]: 1130 vs 1260
cc), but I believe they're more advanced, uses less energy, and generates less
heat.
They appear to be:
1. Multi-core, capable of thinking of several things simultaneously.
2. Real-time OS, hardly freezes (even when staring at handsome men).
3. Proprietary OS, difficult to reverse-engineer or predict.
4. Secure, always having secrets that will never be revealed.
5. Highly efficient I/O, capable of 30000 words per day.
6. Threat-ready, capable of out-talking (and sometimes out-thinking) any
opponent.
Why women avoid pursuing a CS career is a mystery to me.