Women and ICT

From IAE-Pedia

Contents 1 Introduction 2 History 2.1 Ada Lovelace 2.2 Grace Hopper 2.3 Anita Borg 2.4 Jo Sanders 2.5 WWII Female Computers 3 Women Recipients of ACM Turing Awards 4 IAE Women Pioneers 5 Organizations for Women in Computing 5.1 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 5.2 ACM's Women in Computing 5.3 Association for Women in Computing 5.4 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 5.5 Center for Women and Information Technology 5.6 National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) 5.7 Multinational Development of Women in Technology (MDWIT) 5.8 Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research 5.9 Women in Computing: CPSR 5.10 Women in Technology 6 Women in IT in Malaysia 7 Some Related Activities and Organization 8 Gender Gap 9 References 10 Author or Authors

People interested in this Women and ICT document are also apt to be interested in:

• Computational Thinking.
• What is Computer Science?
• History of Computers in Education.

"If women are to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things." Plato (428-347 B.C.)

"Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half." Plato (428-347 B.C.)

Introduction

Computer technology in thoroughly integrated into our everyday society—it is ubiquitous. Everybody living in our society makes use of computer technology.

However, different people have widely varying levels of knowledge and understanding about computer technology. I can turn on an electric light without having an understanding of the roles computer technology play in our power distribution grid. I can make a purchase using my debit or credit card without understanding the computerized telecommunication system and banking system that underlies this transaction.

Indeed, I can make use of a modern cell phone that includes a built-in digital camera, music storage and playback, games, and so on with almost no understanding of computer technology.

So, you might ask, what is this "big deal" about Computational Thinking for All" and efforts to get more women and minorities to go into computer science and other computer-related fields of study?

My overly simplistic answer has two parts:

1. Many individuals can benefit considerably from understanding and making use of computer technology far above a "black box" level of knowledge and skill.
2. Our nation—and all nations of the world—can benefit economically, socially, politically, and in other ways via a greater percentage of their populations knowing and effectively using computer technology above the level of a "black box."

Probably it is the second of these two ideas that motivates our federal government and many other levels of government to place some emphasis on increasing the number of women who study computer and information science at a high level and who go into fields of study and jobs that require a relatively deep understanding of computer technology and other aspects of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines.

In the United States, more women than men are now going on to higher education and earning college degrees. However, the number of women pursuing degrees and careers in the STEM areas remains below the number of men. There have been many studies of this situation and many programs designed to change this situation.

The specific topic of women in computer science was a major point of discussion at the February 19–20 Computational Thinking Workshop funded by the National Science Foundation and run by the National Academies. Examples of success in getting more women into computer science were illustrated by the programs of study at Stanford and at Carnegie-Mellon. In both institutions, introductory computer science courses have been designed that are equally attractive to male and female students.

The US Federal Government is continuing to fund studies and programs designed to increase the number of women pursuing degrees and careers in the STEM areas. For example, the National Science Foundation awarded the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology a grant of $332,000 for student scholarship and travel grants for 2009-2011 Grace Hopper Celebrations.

This document provides an overview and brief introduction to various aspects of the field of girls and women in the overall field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this document, ICT is taken in a very broad sense, so it includes computer science, computer technology, and computer applications. The emphasis in on girls and women gaining and making use of ICT knowledge and skills that is far beyond the "black box" approach.

History

Historically, women have been under represented in the fields of science and mathematics. Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper are examples of women who made early and pioneering contributions to the computer field.

In more recent years, women have played an increasingly important role in the field of computer science. They are playing a still larger role in the general field of Information and Communications Technology and in the general field of ICT in education. The current Board of Directors of the International Society for Technology in Education provides an excellent example of women playing leadership roles in the field of ICT in education.

Ada Lovelace

Quoting from the Wikipedia:

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815, London – 27 November 1852, Marylebone, London), born Augusta Ada Byron, was the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron. She is widely known in modern times simply as Ada Lovelace.

She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs—that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.

…

During a nine-month period in 1842-43, Lovelace translated Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's newest proposed machine, the Analytical Engine. With the article, she appended a set of notes. The notes are longer than the memoir itself and include, in complete detail, a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers with the Engine, which would have run correctly had the Analytical Engine ever been built. Based on this work, Lovelace is now widely credited with being the first computer programmer and her method is recognised as the world's first computer program. [Bold added for emphasis.]

Grace Hopper

Grace Murry Hopper (1906–1992) was a Ph.D. mathematician, a computer scientist, an educator, and a very successful spokesperson for the field of computer science and for women in computing. Quoting from About Grace Hopper:

Most of us remember seeing Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper on television. We recall a charming, tiny, white-haired lady in a Navy uniform with a lot of braid, admonishing a class of young Naval officers to remember their nanoseconds. The “nanoseconds” she handed out were lengths of wire, cut to not quite 12 inches in length, equal to the distance traveled by electromagnetic waves along the wire in the space of a nanosecond–one billionth of a second. In teaching efficient programming methods, Rear Admiral Hopper wanted to make sure her students would not waste nanoseconds. Occasionally, to make the demonstration even more powerful, she would bring to class an entire “microsecond”–a coil of wire nearly 1,000 feet long that the rear admiral, herself tough and wiry, would brandish with a sweeping gesture and a steady wrist.

The vividness of our impression of Hopper as a great teacher derives from these images. But, as computer pioneer Howard Bromberg has written, Hopper was much more. She was a “mathematician, computer scientist, social scientist, corporate politician, marketing whiz, systems designer, and programmer,” and, always, a “visionary.” After graduating from Vassar with a degree in mathematics in 1928, Grace Brewster Murray worked under algebraist Oystein Ore at Yale for her Ph.D. (1934). She married Vincent Foster Hopper, an educator, in 1930, and began teaching mathematics at Vassar in 1931.

Anita Borg

The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) was founded in 1997 by renowned computer scientist Anita Borg, Ph.D. (1949–2003). Initially known as the Institute for Women in Technology, IWT was renamed in 2003 to the Anita Borg Institute in order to honor Dr. Borg.

Quoting from the Wikipedia:

Anita Borg was one of a relatively small group of female computer scientists at the Ph.D. level. After getting her doctorate in computer science from New York University in 1981, she worked for several computer companies and then spent 12 years in Digital Equipment's Western Research Laboratory and as consultant engineer in the Network Systems Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. Her primary responsibility was for the MECCA Communications and Information Systems project. She developed and patented a method for generating complete address traces used for analyzing and designing high-speed memory systems.

She also started a technical conference for women, called the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

The Anita Borg Institutes for Women and Technology includes an initiative named Systers. Quoting from its Webpage:

Systers is the world’s largest email community of technical women in computing. It was founded by Anita Borg in 1987 as a small electronic mailing list for women in “systems”. Today, Systers broadly promotes the interests of women in the computing and technology fields. Anita created Systers to “increas[e] the number of women in computer science and mak[e] the environments in which women work more conducive to their continued participation in the field.” (Read Why Systers?) It serves this purpose by providing women a private space to seek advice from their peers, and discuss the challenges they share as women technologist.

Systers is a forum for all women involved in the technical aspects of computing. The list has over 3,000 members in at least 54 countries around the world. We welcome technical women of all ages and at any stage of their studies or careers to participate.

Quoting from the Wikipedia:

• In 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the Presidential Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology. She was charged with recommending strategies to the nation for increasing the breadth of participation fields for women.
• Borg received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association for Women in Computing for her work on behalf of women in the computing field in 1995.
• In 1996 she was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
• Dr. Borg received additional awards and recognition from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Girl Scouts of the USA and was listed on Open Computing Magazine's "Top 100 Women In Computing."

Jo Sanders

Jo Sanders has 30 years of experience working in the area of women and technology, science, and mathematics. Quoting from her website:

Jo Sanders has been the director of the Center for Gender Equity since the mid-80s. Under her leadership the Center has carried out numerous precedent-setting research and development projects on gender equity in technology, science, and mathematics. The projects have for the most part been nationwide in scope, frequently funded by the National Science Foundation. The Center has also provided extensive staff development for educators at all levels on gender equity, with workshops, seminars, and lectures delivered extensively throughout the United States and abroad.

Jo Sanders has provided consulting services of the highest quality, particularly about women and technology, science, and mathematics, to education and employment institutions and programs for three decades. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times, among many others. She has appeared on Good Morning, America and many radio stations. Ms. Sanders has published articles on gender equity in Education Leadership, Education Digest, Phi Delta Kappan, ERIC Digest, WEEA Digest, and many other periodicals, in addition to ten books and many book chapters.

The Website includes a dozen publications are available online. Her June 2005 40-page document on "Gender and Technology in Education: A Research Review" includes a huge number of references. Her July/August 2005 article "Lessons I’ve Learned in 22 Years of Working with Teachers About Girls in IT" focuses on Crossing Cultures, Changing Lives: Integrating Research on Girls’ Choices of IT Careers.

WWII Female Computers

Gumbrect, Jamie (2/8/2011). Rediscovering WWII's female 'computers.' CNN Tech. Retrieved 3/3/2011 from http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/08/women.rosies.math/index.html?hpt=Sbin.

Quoting from the website:

It was 2003 and Erickson was interviewing sisters Shirley Blumberg Melvin and Doris Blumberg Polsky for her documentary, "Neighbor Ladies," about a woman-owned real estate agency that helped to peacefully integrate a Philadelphia neighborhood. The twins, long-retired by then, reluctantly mentioned a different sort of job they'd held during World War II: Female "computers."

Computer, at that point, was a job title, not a machine. Long before the sisters were businesswomen, community activists, mothers or grandmothers, they were recruited by the U.S. military to do ballistics research. They worked six days a week, sometimes pulling double or triple shifts, along with dozens of other women.

The weapons trajectories they calculated were passed out to soldiers in the field and bombardiers in the air. Some of their colleagues went on to program the earliest of general-purpose computers, the ENIAC.

Women Recipients of ACM Turing Awards

The ACM Turing award is named in honor of Alan Turing. Quoting from the Website:

ACM's most prestigious technical award is accompanied by a prize of $250,000. It is given to an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field. Financial support of the Turing Award is provided by the Intel Corporation and Google Inc.

One or more people have received this award each year, beginning with Alan Perlis in 1966. Most of these awards have gone to men. The first two women to win the Turing Award are:

• Barbara H. Liskov, 2008.
• Francis E. Allen, 2006.

IAE Women Pioneers

Here are some of the women who have played major leadership roles in the development of the field of ICT in education. This is a growing list of women who have been identified as Information Age Education Pioneers.

Some of the Information Age Education Wiki entries for the people listed below are merely stubs (place holders), and other pages are far from complete. Much work remains to be done. Volunteer help is much appreciated.

Bialo, Ellen.

Bigham, Vicki Smith.

Billings, Karen.

Cappo, Marge.

Charp, Sylvia.

Crane, Therese (Terry).

Davidson, Jan.

Goodson, Roberta (Bobby).

Hawkins, Jan.

Hunter, Beverly.

Hurley, Kathy.

Kopec, Anita.

Kurshan, Barbara.

Lathrop, Ann.

Linn, Marcia.

Loop, Liza.

Roberts, Linda.

Talley, Sue.

Yoder, Sharon.

Organizations for Women in Computing

There are many organizations that are dedicated to Women inComputing and that have as one of their goals to help increase the participation of women in the overall field of ICT. Some of these are listed and briefly discussed below.

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

The Association for Computing in the largest and oldest international scientific and educational computer society in the industry. Here is an important on-going study being spearheaded by ACM and Educational Foundation.

ACM] and WGBH Educational Foundation (6/3/09). New Image for Computing. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://www.acm.org/membership/NIC.pdf. Quoting from the Executive Summary of this 21 page report:

New Image for Computing (NIC) is managed by WGBH, a leading producer of television and non-broadcast educational media, and the Association for Computing Machinery computing society. Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CNS-0753686), NIC is currently in the first stage of what is planned as a multi-phase project that aims to improve the image of computer science among high school students (with a special focus on gender and ethnic disparities) and encourage greater participation in computer science at the postsecondary level. Working with experienced marketing professionals, the NIC initiative seeks to:

1. understand the attitudes held by high school students toward the study of computing in college and potential computing careers;
2. create a set of market-tested messages that resonate with young people, accurately and positively represent the field, and reshape the way computer science is portrayed to and perceived by young people;
3. conduct a pilot campaign using the tested messages. This pilot will assess strategies for how the messages can be used in a variety of ways to reach young people in their communities;
4. build a coalition of partners (computing organizations, universities, high school educators, and others) to adopt the messages and spread the word about the rewards and benefits of a career in computer science in honest, positive, and unified ways; and
5. evaluate the result.

This report covers the first phase of the NIC initiative: market research and initial message testing, which was developed and implemented by Manhattan-based marketing and communications firms, BBMG and Global Strategy Group. In late 2008, we conducted a national online survey of college-bound high school students, ages 13–17, whose overall gender and ethnic representation mirrors that of all incoming U.S. freshmen.

One of the key findings in this first phase of the study: "College-bound females, regardless of race and ethnicity, are significantly less interested than boys are in computing. More girls tend to associate computing with “typing,” “math,” and “boredom,” while boys are more likely to associate computing with “video games,” “design,” “electronics,” “solving problems,” and “interesting.”

ACM's Women in Computing

ACM-W's mission is to celebrate, inform and support women in computing, and work with the ACM-W community of computer scientists, educators, employers and policy makers to improve working and learning environments for women. This includes promoting activities that result in more equal representation of women in CS such as mentoring or role modeling; monitoring the status of women in industrial and academic computing through the gathering of statistics; providing historical information about women's accomplishments and roles in CS; and serving as a repository of information about programs, documents and policies of concern to women in CS.

Through international and local activities and chapters, educational outreach, recognition of leading women in CS, cooperation with other organizations, and the dissemination of information via newsletters, blogs, and reports, ACM-W promotes the growth and development of women seeking to attain careers in computing.

Association for Women in Computing

Quoting from the AWC Homepage:

The Association for Women in Computing (AWC) was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1978 and is one of the first professional organizations for women in computing. AWC is dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in the computing professions. Our members include many types of computer professionals, such as programmers, system analysts, operators, technical writers, Internet specialists, trainers and consultants.

The purpose of AWC is to provide opportunities for professional growth through networking and through programs on technical and career-oriented topics. AWC encourages high standards of competence and promotes a professional attitude among its members. We are governed by a board of directors representing all of the local chapters.

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

An annual conference is held to celebrate the work of Grace Hopper and other women in computing. Quoting from the Website:

Co-founded by Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney in 1994 and inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Of Women In Computing Conference is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the largest technical conference for women in computing and results in collaborative proposals, networking and mentoring for junior women and increased visibility for the contributions of women in computing. Conference presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industry, academia and government. Top researchers present their work while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields.

Center for Women and Information Technology

Center for Women and Information Technology. Quoting from the Website:

Unquestionably, we must encourage more women and girls to study computer science and become the high-tech professionals for which there is so strong a demand. Equally important, however, is the quality of women's experience as users of IT. The headlines report that women are flocking to the Net in unprecedented numbers, but if we look further, we find that the Internet stampede includes relatively few economically disadvantaged women, minority women, or women in a number of countries outside the U.S. and Canada. These absences do not bode well for the future. As more and more of our information comes from online sources, women unable or unwilling to use information technology will have little power to shape that information and, in fact, are in danger of becoming the new illiterates, unprepared for the opportunities and challenges of the Information Age.

National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP)

National Girls Collaboration Project. Quoting from the Website:

The NGCP is designed to reach girl-serving STEM organizations across the United States. An intense recruitment and selection process began Fall 2005 to identify sponsoring organizations to lead local collaboratives. The organizations selected to host local collaboratives are impressive in their knowledge, experience, and diversity. As a group, the local collaboratives have an extensive network of organizations and individuals engaged in pursuing this common goal and the opportunity to share with and learn from each other. They vary in focus areas and populations served and include higher education institutions, community-based organizations, private non-profits, but all work to increase gender equity in STEM fields.

The vision of the NGCP is to bring together organizations throughout the United States that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The goals of NGCP are to:

1. Maximize access to shared resources within projects and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in STEM.
2. Strengthen capacity of existing and evolving projects by sharing promising practice research and program models, outcomes and products.
3. Use the leverage of a network or collaboration of individual girl-serving STEM programs to create the tipping point for gender equity in STEM.

Multinational Development of Women in Technology (MDWIT)

MDWIT: Where women and technology come together!. Quoting from the Website:

The Multinational Development of Women in Technology (MDWIT) was founded to accelerate growth in the global knowledge economy. By combining women’s latent potential with innovative ideas enabled through technology, all women and girls, their families and communities prosper.

MDWIT is a global center of excellence for promoting the advancement of women in technology through the development and dissemination of best practices, programs, research, and policy by embracing the values of leadership, equity, and integrity.

MDWIT exists to...

• Encourage more women and girls to prepare for careers in technology related fields.
• Support women in technology careers and entrepreneurs to achieve professional and personal success and to advance as leaders in their industry.
• Collaborate with organizations to more effectively share and disseminate practices, programs, and policies that effectively encourage and/or support women in technology.
• Foster research concerning gender and technology.

Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research

CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research. Quoting from the Website:

The goal of the CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is to take positive action to increase the number of women participating in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) research and education at all levels.

The Computer Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is an action oriented organization dedicated to increasing the number of women participating in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) research and education at all levels.

In addition to increasing the number of women involved, we also seek to increase the degree of success they experience and to provide a forum for addressing problems that often fall disproportionately within women's domain. We are hopeful that the committee activities will also have a positive impact for other underrepresented groups in CSE and we are committed to improving the working environment for Computer Scientists and Engineers of both genders.

Women in Computing: CPSR

Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility: Women in Computing. Quoting from the Website:

On this page:

• The Debate over Gender Differences
• Women & Computing Careers: Problems & Solutions
• Advances for Women in Computing
• Women Networking
• More on Women in Computing from the CPSR Archives

Women in Technology

WIT. Women in Technology. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://www.womenintechnology.org/. Quoting from the website:

Our Mission

To provide women in the technology community a networking and professional growth environment to develop relationships and create new opportunities.

Our Vision

To be the premier organization contributing to the success of professional women in the technology community.

Women in IT in Malaysia

Schechter, Ruth (2/8/2010). Malaysian women redefine gender roles in technology. Gender News from the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Retrieved 2/24/2010 from http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/cgi-bin/wordpressblog/2010/02/malaysian-women-redefine-gender-roles-in-technology/. Quoting from the article:

According to national studies, women hold more than half of all professional occupations in the U.S. but fewer than 24 percent of all computing-related occupations, representing a huge pool of untapped talent. The numbers are not moving in favor of increasing women’s participation in technology; in 2008 women earned only 18 percent of all computer science degrees. Back in 1985, women earned 37 percent of CS degrees, nearly double today’s share.

As technology becomes ever more pervasive and powerful, why aren’t more women clamoring to take part in the surge? Do these dwindling numbers reveal a faulty system that discourages women from entering the field? Or is it a reflection of intrinsic perceptions of gender strengths and weaknesses?

The answer may lie in Malaysia, where women make up between 50 and 60 percent of the computer industry’s employees and many hold mid- and upper-level management positions. The country’s burgeoning technology industry has brought about dramatic changes to women’s roles in society, changing traditional perceptions of class, ethnicity and gender.

Some Related Activities and Organization

Expanding Your Horizons (EYH).

The Expanding Your Horizons Network (referred to as the Network) is a non-profit organization for middle and high school women. The Website includes an 8-minute video that provides background on the types of conference activities the organization runs. Quoting from the Website:

The EYH Network is a non-profit membership organization of educators, scientists, mathematicians, parents, community leaders, and government and corporate representatives.

Our mission is to encourage young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. Through Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Network programs, we provide STEM role models and hands-on activities for middle and high school girls. Our ultimate goal is to motivate girls to become innovative and creative thinkers ready to meet 21st Century challenges.

The Network's programs are developed based on the following assumptions:

1. In order to increase the participation of women in mathematics, science, and engineering careers, there must be an increase in the pool of qualified women.
2. In order for young women to have the option to enter mathematics, science, and engineering careers, they need to choose to take the appropriate mathematics and science courses in high school.
3. Intervention strategies are needed that increase the participation of girls in mathematics by nurturing enjoyment and confidence in mathematics, by connecting the value of mathematics to career opportunities, by providing career role models, and by actively encouraging girls to persevere in mathematics coursework.

American Association of University Women (AAUW): Breaking through barriers for women and girls.

Here are two major educational activities of this organization:

1. National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. Quoting from the Website:

When the Intercollegiate Association for Women Students (IAWS) suspended its operations in 1983, Donna Shavlik, then-director of the Office for Women at the American Council on Education (ACE), secured a grant from the Johnson Foundation to fund a meeting at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin. Attendees wanted to continue supporting college women's leadership development and proposed a successor organization to IAWS, the Intercollegiate Association for Women Student Leaders (IAWSL).

Although IAWSL never developed into a viable organization, Donna Shavlik and Emily Taylor, former director of the Office for Women at ACE, enlisted a coalition of leaders of women's organizations and raised funds to support a national conference in Washington, D.C., that would focus on leadership and career development for college women. Shavlik and Taylor had both been national advisors to IAWS and drew support from the network of women in higher education who had shared their commitment to the organization.

In 1985, the first leadership conference was held on the campus of American University. The Office for Women at ACE was the principal architect of the event, providing both program leadership and funding. The National Association of Women Deans, Administrators and Counselors, many of whom were deans of women or deans of students, shared some of the financial burden. The Women's Institute at American University, led by Emily Taylor, the Project on the Status and Education of Women at the Association of American Colleges, led by Bernice Sandler, and AAUW lent the effort legitimacy and support. For a number of years, AAUW presented a legislative briefing on Capitol Hill that immediately preceded the leadership conference program.

2. Opening Opportunities for Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Quoting from the Website:

The vision of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) is to bring together organizations that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). AAUW's partners in the project include the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Assessing Women and Men in Engineering; and the Education Development Center.

There are many projects devoted to increasing the number of girls interested in STEM across the country, but, often, individuals working on one girl-serving STEM project are unaware of similar projects nearby. A large part of the NGCP is the creation of a Program Directory of these girl-serving projects and others interested in increasing gender equity in STEM. The Program Directory allows organizations and individuals to network, share resources, and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls.

Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Quoting from the Website:

The Association for Women in Science is dedicated to achieving equality and full participation for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

…

In 1971, at the annual FASEB meeting, flyers were posted inviting women scientists to a champagne mixer and meeting to encourage the exchange of ideas and solutions to overcoming job discrimination, lower pay, and professional isolation. Those 27 women who took the initiative to make science a better place for women founded the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), today's premiere leadership organization advocating the interests of women in science and technology. For nearly 40 years, the Association for Women in Science has fought for equity and career advancement for women–from the bench to the board room.

We unite women through our nationwide network of chapters and partnerships with aligned professional organizations.

Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Quoting from the Website:

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a not-for-profit educational and service organization that empowers women to succeed and advance in the field of engineering, and to be recognized for their life-changing contributions as engineers and leaders. Founded in 1950, SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career for women through an exciting array of training and development programs, networking opportunities, scholarships, outreach and advocacy activities, and much more.

Gender Gap

Historically, more men than women have majored in Computer and Information Science at the University level. This gap is narrowed substantially at Universities that create more "women friendly" environments in their CIS Departments.

Some people suggest that this gender gap is related to the gender gap in math. Quoting from the article Duke TIP program team announces key findings of 30-year study published 6/18/2010:

The Duke Talent Identification Program announces key research findings in the area of sex differences in cognitive abilities, in particular mathematical ability and science reasoning. A recent study, “Sex differences in the right tail of cognitive abilities: A 30 year examination,” conducted by four Duke TIP researchers, including Executive Director and Professor of Psychology Martha Putallaz, Ph.D., considers standardized test scores of over 1.6 million 7th graders across three decades. The study findings hold potential implications for the under representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Since 1981, TIP has conducted an annual Talent Search, whereby 7th graders take the SAT or ACT—generally given to high school juniors—to assess their academic ability. Using these SAT and ACT scores, TIP’s team of researchers, including Jonathan Wai, Megan Cacchio, Martha Putallaz, and Matthew C. Makel, were able to adequately capture the individual differences in ability in the highest-scoring children.

The team found that the gender gap between 7th grade boys and girls in mathematical ability is substantially lower than it was 30 years ago, but that there continues to be a gap in mathematical ability. Additionally there is still a gap in what the researchers suggest should now be considered a new factor in the debate—science reasoning.

the TIP researchers examined the top 5% of ability (the right tail), but primarily focused on the top 0.01 percentile of these students: those 7th graders who scored 700 or above on the SAT-Math portion or the equivalent on the ACT-Math and ACT-Science portions (see Figure 1). They found that in the early 1980’s there were roughly thirteen males to every female scoring 700 or above on the SAT-Math, and ten years later, in the early 1990’s, there were roughly four males to every female, this ratio drop being likely due to sociocultural factors (such as academic encouragement and mathematical instruction of females). However, the ratio has not substantially changed since the early 1990’s. Additionally, for the last 20 years, the male-female ratios on the ACT-Math and the ACT-Science have also remained fairly stable at about three males to every female.

The following article provides 2013 information on the problem:

Miller, Claire Caine (April 2, 2013). Opening a gateway for girls to enter the computer field. NY Times. Retrieved 4/5/2013 from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/opening-a-gateway-for-girls-to-enter-the-computer-field/.

Quoting from the article:

Girls Who Code is among the recent crop of programs intended to close the gender gap in tech by intervening early, when young women are deciding what they want to study. With names like Hackbright Academy, Girl Develop It, Black Girls Code and Girls Teaching Girls to Code, these groups try to present a more exciting image of computer science.

The paucity of women in the tech industry has been well documented. Even though women represent more than half the overall work force, they hold less than a quarter of computing and technical jobs, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology based at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At the executive and founder levels, women are even scarcer.

…

Even so, the number of women entering technology has been declining. Women earn just 12 percent of computer science degrees, down from 37 percent in 1984. Tech executives, recruiters and financiers say women simply do not walk through their doors seeking work.

References

Not yet integrated into the list: Retrieved 11/2/2012 from http://chronicle.com/article/In-Terms-of-Gender/135304/. Retrieved 11/5/2012 http://chronicle.com/article/Rebooting-Recruiting-to-Get/135282/.

ACM (3/17/2010). ACM Council on Women Honors Leader in Improving Performance of Computer-Aided Design; Mary Jane Irwin Wins Athena Award for Contributions to Computer Architecture. Retrieved 3/19/2010 from http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20100317.080544&time=09%2041%20PDT&year=2010&public=0. Quoting from the Website:

The Association for Computing Machinery's Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W; http://women.acm.org/) has named Mary Jane Irwin of the Pennsylvania State University as the 2010-2011 Athena Lecturer for her outstanding research contributions to computer-aided design, computer arithmetic, and computer architecture. Irwin designed novel computer structures that are used in laptops to vastly improve the performance of image and speech applications. She also developed techniques to automate computer-aided design (CAD) activities, which have been assimilated by the CAD industry. The award, which celebrates women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science, includes a $10,000 honorarium, which is provided by Google Inc.

Agnes Scott College (n.d.). Biographies of women mathematicians. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm. Quoting from the Website:

Welcome to the web site for biographies of women in mathematics. These pages are part of an on-going project at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia, to illustrate the numerous achievements of women in the field of mathematics. Here you can find biographical essays or comments on the women mathematicians profiled on this site, as well as additional resources about women in mathematics. Each time this page is reloaded, a randomly selected photo is displayed to the left (if Javascript is enabled). Click on the image to go to the profile of that woman

Anderson, Elise (8/10/09). Girls encouraged to enter technology field. The Washington Times. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/10/girls-encouraged-to-enter-technology-field/. Quoting from the Website:

Surrounded by computers, gadgets and video game consoles, dozens of girls gathered in groups to demonstrate their grasp of today's technology. There was excitement and a buzz of productivity at Microsoft's DigiGirlz High Tech Camp as the high schoolers collaborated with one another and proudly displayed the video games they designed.

…

The number of women earning undergraduate degrees in computer science has plunged nearly 50 percent since 1985, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. In 1985, women represented 37 percent of computer science undergraduate degree recipients. By 2008, women represented a mere 18 percent of computer and information sciences undergraduate degree recipients, representing a significant drop in degrees awarded.

A 2007 report by the same group revealed that women held more than half of professional positions in the overall U.S. work force but fewer than 22 percent of software engineering jobs.

Carnegie Mellon (n.d.). Women@SCS. School Of Computer, Science Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://women.cs.cmu.edu/. Quoting from the Website:

The Women@SCS mission is to create, encourage, and support academic, social, and professional opportunities for women in computer science and to promote the breadth of the field and its diverse community.

…

In 1999, the number of undergraduate women students entering Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department reached 38% (50 out of 130) --up from 7% (7 out of 96) in 1995. The factors that contributed to this dramatic increase have been well documented by Fisher and Margolis (2) and Blum (3) . Briefly, in 1995 Allan Fisher and Jane Margolis embarked on a longitudinal study (funded by the Sloan Foundation) of the gender gap in computer science at Carnegie Mellon. A number of key actions then came into play:

• Summer workshops for high school teachers of Advanced Placement Computer Science were held on campus (run by Fisher and Margolis and funded by the National Science Foundation). In addition to technical information needed to address changes in the AP CS exams, these teachers were provided information and advice on recruiting and retaining women in computer science.
• Allan Fisher, (then) Associate Dean for Undergraduate Computer Science Education, advised the Carnegie Mellon Admissions Office that prior programming experience was not a pre-requisite for success in the computer science major.
• Raj Reddy, (then) Dean of Computer Science, requested that the Admissions Office develop criteria that could help select future visionaries and leaders in computer science.

• The Admissions Office started placing high value on activities that demonstrated commitment to "giving back to the community."

Thus, a new vision for the SCS undergraduate student body was formed that would influence changes in the recruitment of computer science majors ---changes that would lead to the increased enrollment of women and indeed to a significant transformation of the culture of computing at Carnegie Mellon. Importantly, these and subsequent developments have been undertaken with essential support from top administrators, including the President of the University.

Cohoon, J. McGrath )1/3/2012). Wanted: Technical Women. US News. Retrieved 1/6/2012 from http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/stem-education/2012/01/03/wanted-technical-women.

Quoting from the article:

If women have the ability to be technical, why are many less confident than men they'll be successful? Because most people assume that men are better than women at technical things.

The Stanford study corroborated what we already know from other national and international research. Stereotypes, or cultural beliefs, that link masculinity and technology, while disconnecting femininity and technology, create false expectations that men are naturally better engineers and computing professionals than women are.

…

All of this research documents and explains why women feel less confident and may actually leave fields like computing and engineering. Nevertheless, this situation is not inevitable. Certain countries, like Malaysia, for example, think of computing as women's work and have more women than men in computing occupations.

Damour, Lisa (11/9/09). Teaching girls to tinker. Education Week. Retrieved 11/22/09 from http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Finding-the-Kindle-a-Poor/8808/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en. Quoting from the article:

Girls now surpass boys in nearly every measure of academic success. A 2004 report from the National Center for Education Statistics confirmed that girls had higher educational goals than boys, were less likely to repeat a grade or drop out of school, took more Advanced Placement courses, and were more likely to go to and graduate from college.

Even in high school mathematics— a subject where boys have consistently held an edge—the playing field seems, somehow, to have leveled. As a 2008 report in the journal Science calmly declared, “Standardized tests in the U.S. indicate that girls now score just as well as boys in math.”

Yet, even as girls open new gender gaps by outpacing their male peers in most subjects, men still receive roughly 77 percent of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering and 85 percent of those in computer science. Why aren’t girls choosing to enter these critical fields of the future?

Dean, Kari Lynn (01/19/04). Awarding the Brains Behind AI. Wired. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/65357. Quoting from the article:

[Daphne Koller's] creativity recently garnered a $500,000, no-strings-attached MacArthur Fellowship. And contrary to Eliot/Evans' antiquated dictum, Koller won the MacArthur "genius award" because her creativity in resolving uncertainty could benefit society.

By addressing fundamental problems with machine learning and exploring the foundations of intelligence, Koller is pushing the limits of present-day scientific understanding of how to build computer programs that learn efficiently and reason intelligently.

"Daphne has been at the forefront of work that demonstrates how real-world challenges can drive the developments of new theoretical principles and how those can be applied to teach us more about the world," said Eric Horvitz, Microsoft research manager and chairman of the Association for Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence.

Ding, Waverly et al. (2009). The Impact of Information Technology on Scientists' Productivity, Quality and Collaboration Patterns. National Bureau of Economic research. Retrieved8/24/09: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15285. Quoting the abstract of this paper:

This study advances the prior literature concerning the impact of information technology on productivity in academe in two important ways. First, it utilizes a dataset that combines information on the diffusion of two noteworthy and early innovations in IT -- BITNET and the Domain Name System (DNS) -- with career history data on research-active life scientists. This research design allows for proper identification of the availability of access to IT as well as a means to directly identify causal effects. Second, the fine-grained nature of the data set allows for an investigation of three publishing outcomes: counts, quality, and co-authorship. Our analysis of a random sample of 3,771 research-active life scientists from 430 U.S. institutions over a 25-year period supports the hypothesis of a differential return to IT across subgroups of the scientific labor force. Women scientists, early-to-mid-career scientists, and those employed by mid-to-lower-tier institutions benefit from access to IT in terms of overall research output and an increase in the number of new co-authors they work with. Early-career scientists and those in top-tier institutions gain in terms of research quality when IT becomes available at their campuses.

Duke University (6/22/09). Bringing Girls and Boys to Computer Science with 'Alice'. Duke University Office of News and Communications. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2009/06/computerfems.html. Quoting from the Website:

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University computer scientist Susan Rodger is hoping ice skaters, cute animals and fearsome dragons will bring new talent to her field.

With support from the National Science Foundation, she and collaborators nationwide are using the power of storytelling to draw younger students into programming. An animation program called "Alice," invented by the late Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University, allows student programmers of all ages to create their own worlds without realizing they're actually writing code.

Rodger recalled the rush of introducing fourth-to-sixth graders to Alice during an annual event that brings elementary school girls to the Duke campus to meet with female professors.

Educause (n.d.). The membership drive for the EDUCAUSE Women in IT constituent group listserv has launched, and we need your help! (See http://www.educause.edu/groups/itwomen)

The Women in IT Constituent Group collects and disseminates effective practices in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in higher education IT. Through both virtual and face-to-face networking opportunities and by making good use of its affiliation with the National Center for Women & IT, this group provides a venue for addressing a wide range of issues affecting women IT professionals in colleges and universities, including securing high level leadership roles in higher education.

Eisen, Ben (7/22/09). Seeking Advice on Women in Science. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/07/22/stem. Quoting from the Website:

WASHINGTON -- The landscape of scientists and engineers is certainly a lot more diverse than it was 20 years ago, but serious gender gaps remain. That was the consensus here at a hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Research and Science Education Tuesday. The hearing focused on finding ways to attract more female science students.

The fact that women are underrepresented in a number of STEM fields shows itself in the proportions of degrees granted to each gender. In 2006, women earned 58 percent of all bachelor's degrees, but only 20 percent of computer science bachelor's degrees, 21 percent of physics degrees and 20 percent of engineering degrees, according to data from the National Science Foundation. The same data also found that on the whole, women hold more than half of science and technology degrees, with women earning 77 percent of psychology degrees, 62 percent of biological sciences degrees, and 54 percent of social sciences degrees.

"The jobs of the future are going to require of workers a basic understanding of the principles of math and science. If we do not persuade women to pursue these fields, they are already [risking] cutting themselves out of a great job future," said Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI).

The problems with -- and thus, possibly the solutions for -- getting female students involved in science begin at an early age. Sandra Hanson, professor of sociology at Catholic University and a researcher on women in science, said that the culture of science is often associated with white men. When a study asked little kids to draw pictures of scientists, she said, they often drew white males. When they did draw women, the women looked "severe and unhappy." Nearly 70 percent of fourth graders of both gender report liking science, but by eighth grade male students report liking STEM fields twice as much as female students. As time goes on, female students face a drop-off in interest, particularly in middle school when students become more self-conscious, during high school when they have to decide whether to put themselves on advanced track math and science curricula, and throughout college and graduate school.

Gardella, Adriana (6/24/2011). Why Women Have an Advantage in Technology. The New York Times. Retrieved 6/29/2011 from http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/why-women-have-an-advantage-in-technology/.

This article is an interview with Audrey MacLean, a technologist and entrepreneur. Here are two of the questions:

Q. Technology is often described as a field that’s inhospitable to women. Has that been your experience?

Ms. MacLean: When I entered the industry, it was burgeoning. Though being a woman was a novelty, it was growing so fast the opportunity was there, just as the opportunity was there for women during World War II. Tech is a true meritocracy. Either you have the goods or you don’t. There’s less concern with gender, race, color and creed. I really truly believe that, despite data on the dearth of women in technology, tech doesn’t have a barrier up to women. In fact, if anything, women who are technically prepared have an advantage.

Q. What would get more women to choose careers in technology?

Ms. MacLean: We need to get girls interested in computing by first grade. By fifth grade, it’s game over. Computing has an image crisis. A boy geek subculture has grown up around gaming that involves violence. It’s not something little girls aspire to. It’s not about lack of educational opportunities for women. Smart girls graduate from high school with straight A’s, go to college, and find themselves surrounded by guys who’ve been hacking for 10 years. So they’re way behind. They get discouraged, and go into law or medicine.

Korenman, Joan (2009). Women-Related Web Sites in Science/Technology. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/links_sci.html.This site contains a large number of references with link addresses and brief descriptions. Quoting from the Website:

Here are selected women-related sites focusing on science and technology. Though some sites aimed at encouraging girls' interest in these areas are included below, more can be found on the Websites for Girls page.

Lewin, Tamar (3/21/2010). Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences. Retrieved 3/22/2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/science/22women.html?ref=education. Quoting from the article:

A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released Monday, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success.

The report, “Why So Few?,” supported by the National Science Foundation, examined decades of research to cull recommendations for drawing more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM fields.

Marklein, Mary Beth (10/16/2012). Teaching for the Future: Steering girls to science. USAToday. Retrieved 10/17/2012 from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/15/teaching-for-future-steering-girls-science/1630391/.

MIT Library (n.d.). Women's Studies section: Science and Technology Websites. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://libraries.mit.edu/humanities/WomensStudies/Tech2.html.

NSF (June 2009). Science and Engineering Graduate Enrollments Accelerate in 2007; Enrollments of Foreign Students Reach New High. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf09314/. The report covers 2000 through 2007, and includes totals for male and female. Quoting from the report:

U.S. enrollment in science and engineering (S&E) graduate programs in 2007 increased by 3.3% over comparable data for 2006. This is the highest annual growth rate since 2002 and is nearly double the 1.7% growth rate seen in 2006. First-time, full-time enrollment of foreign students (the terms foreign student and temporary visa holder are equivalent in this report) eclipsed its previous high, set in 2001, and total enrollment of temporary visa holders topped its 2003 high.[2] Despite this growth, the proportion of S&E graduate students who are temporary visa holders remained below its peak level, set in 2002, because of growth in the numbers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents pursuing graduate-level study in S&E fields. Changes in enrollment from 2006 to 2007 are shown in table 1 under "2006–07old" for reasons explained below.

O'Brien, Chris (6/18/2009). Gap between boys and girls persists in tech. MercuryNews.com. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_12603563.Quoting from the newspaper article:

My 4-year-old daughter Kalian has become fascinated about printing on the —‰'puter," as she calls it. My wife or I will open a Word file on our family PC, and she'll plop down in the chair, peck away on the keyboard and then hit the print key. She'll then run to grab her handiwork and proudly show it off to us.

I suspect her growing interest in computers comes from watching Mommy working on her own laptop. Whatever the reason, I'll admit to being more than a little happy about it. I'm not hoping she'll become a full-fledged geek, but I do want her to feel confident and excited about using computers, which will only become more central to our work and personal lives as she grows up.

But apparently I've got a lot of work ahead to keep up her enthusiasm. According to a study released last week, there remains a depressingly large gap between the way teenage girls and boys view computers and careers in computer science.

The study was conducted by the Association for Computing Machinery, a respected science and education nonprofit, through a grant from the National Science Foundation. In a nationwide survey of college-bound high school students ages 13 to 17, the study found that 45 percent of boys thought majoring in computer science would be "very good," compared with 10 percent of girls.

Peck, Morgan E. (6/27/2012). Breaking the programmer code: Margo Seltzer's views on women in computer science. Txchnologist. Retrieved 7/9/2012 from http://www.txchnologist.com/2012/breaking-the-brogrammer-code-margo-seltzers-views-on-women-in-computer-science.

Quoting from the document:

Dr. Margo Seltzer is a computer science professor in Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and an architect at Oracle. She spent several years at startup computer companies after receiving a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Harvard and a PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkley.

Her work developing software programs, databases and a log-structured file system has propelled her to the forefront of computer science research. She is the recipient of a number of fellowships for her work, most recently being named a fellow in the Association for Computing Machinery in 2011.

Txchnologist: Although women make up nearly half of the workforce in the U.S., the Department of Commerce reports that only one out of four employed computer scientists is female. Does this fit with what you see?

Margo Seltzer: It’s stunning. The numbers are bad, and they’re not particularly getting better globally. The only place that I’ve encountered worse numbers is actually finance and entrepreneurism. Those are the only events that I’ve ever gone to where I’ve felt that I was even more outnumbered.

Phelps-Borrowman, Martha C. (n.d.). Gender Equity in Education : A List of Sites Related to Gender Equity [Online]. Retrieved 8/9/09: http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/mborrow/GenderEquity/geeqlist.html.

A very large collection of links!

Neal, David (2/2/2010). Competition seeks to attract more women into IT. Retrieved 2/24/2010 from http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2257159/hail-rise-cyberella. Quoting from the Website:

IT recruitment site Women in Technology has announced a new competition designed to encourage more women into technology careers.

The Rise of the Cyberella Competition has been launched in partnership with the National IT Learning Centre (NITLC), and will see one lucky entrant walk away with an IT training course worth £2,950.

Purdue University News (8/4/09). Research findings contradict myth of high engineering dropout rate. Retrieved 8/9/09: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009b/090804OhlandEngineering.html. Quoting from the article:

Research findings suggest that, contrary to popular belief, engineering does not have a higher dropout rate than other majors and women do just as well as men, information that could lead to a strategy for boosting the number of U.S. engineering graduates.

"Education lore has always told us that students - particularly women - drop out of undergraduate engineering programs more often than students in other fields," said Matthew Ohland, an associate professor in Purdue University's School of Engineering Education. "Well, it turns out that neither is true. Engineering programs, on average, retain just as many students as other programs do, and once women get to college they're just as likely to stick around in engineering as are their male counterparts."

Schiavone, Kristyn (8/4/2012). Women bridge computer-science gap. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10/13 2012 from http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/chi-women-bridge-computerscience-gap-20120803,0,659958.story. Quoting from the article:

Although computer science is one of the fields poised for exponential job growth over the next several years, there’s a glaring lack of women entering the field.

Since 1984, the number of computer science degrees awarded to women has steadily declined, and today only 13 percent of computer science graduates are female. Accordingly, top jobs in the field are male-dominated. A recent study by technology outsourcing and recruiting firm Harvey Nash Group found that out of 166 U.S.-based technology firms that replaced their CEOs last year, only six appointed a woman for the position. :: …

Quoting Julie Gill: From a very young age, we need to give girls the confidence to take risks and make a few mistakes,” she adds. “As a programmer your whole day is pretty much fixing your own mistakes, so we need to teach girls they don’t have to be perfect, and just outright encouragement for girls who are good at problem-solving.

Science News (6/1/09). Culture, Not Biology, Underpins Math Gender Gap. ScienceDaily. Retrieved 7/26/09: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090601182655.htm. This article reports on recent research on women and mathematics done at the University of Wisconsin. Quoting from the article:

For more than a century, the notion that females are innately less capable than males at doing mathematics, especially at the highest levels, has persisted in even the loftiest circles.

This was one of the primary reasons posited in 2005 by Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard University and current economic adviser to President Barack Obama, for the extreme scarcity of tenured women math professors in top-ranked research universities in the U.S.

Now, however, in an analysis of contemporary data published June 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison report that the primary cause for the gender disparity in math performance at all levels is culture, not biology.

"It's not an innate difference in math ability between males and females," says Janet Mertz, a UW-Madison professor of oncology and one of the authors of the article that analyzes and summarizes recent data on math performance at all levels in the United States and internationally. "There are countries where the gender disparity in math performance doesn't exist at either the average or gifted level. These tend to be the same countries that have the greatest gender equality."

Shanahan, Marie-Claire. (3/29/2011). Can we declare victory for women in their participation in science? Not yet. Scientific America. Retrieved 4/11/2011 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=can-we-declare-victory-in-the-parti-2011-03-29.

Here is a quote of a quote from the article:

"When will we know when we can declare victory? For years I proceeded on the assumption that victory was equal participation of men and women in all branches of science and engineering. Today I'm not so sure.... It's possible that we will come to understand that some fraction of the asymmetries in the distribution of women in the sciences, with women far more well represented in the life sciences and less so in the physical sciences, is the result of women seeking those fields in which they are able to make the greatest contribution in their own judgement. As scientists we have to be open to that possibility."

- Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, speaking at Queen's University [1]

United Nations. Gender, Science and Technology Gateway. Retrieved 8/10/09: http://gstgateway.wigsat.org/gw.html. Quoting from the Website:

The Gender Advisory Board was established in 1995 to provide advice to UNCSTD, national governments and the UN system on the gender dimensions of S&T policy. The board consists of experts in gender, science and technology policy from Brazil, Egypt, India, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Sudan, Uganda, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Regional Secretariats are located in Kampala, Uganda, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Toronto, Canada.

Worthington, David (9/4/09). Computer science lacks women, minorities. Software Development Times. Retrieved 9/10/09: http://www.sdtimes.com/COMPUTER_SCIENCE_LACKS_WOMEN_MINORITIES/By_David_Worthington/About_PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT/33742. Quoting from the article:

The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts high demand for programmers. Its Occupational Handbook for 2006-2016 lists computer application software engineers as the fourth most in-demand occupation due to "increased applications of emerging technologies" and the growing complexity of businesses. Software engineers for systems are listed at number 25.

Despite that demand, there has been a “huge drop off” in the number of computer scientists entering into the workforce since 2000, said Jan Cuny, the program officer at the National Science Foundation who oversees efforts to broaden participation in computing.

Seventy percent fewer students have majored in computer science since 2000; women declined by 80%, she said, citing Computing Research Association data. The Higher Education Research Institute has determined that only 1% of students are majoring in computer science, and 0.3% are women, she added.

Tahmincioglu, Eve (2/21/2010). Tech industry searching for girls gone geek. MSNBC. Retrieved 3/10/2010 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35460968. Quoting from the article:

Indeed, only about 17 percent of girls take advanced placement tests in computer science while in high school, the lowest level of females among all such exams, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. And in 2008, women earned only 18 percent of computer science degrees, compared to 37 percent in 1985.

To counter the dismal statistics, there’s “a movement to reclaim the notion of ‘geek,’” said Amanda Stent, a computational linguistics researcher at AT&T Labs and co author of “The Princess at the Keyboard: Why Girls Should Become Computer Scientists.”

Both Abella and Stent are part of a group of women at AT&T Labs who have made it their mission to encourage more young women to fall in love with science and technology.

Author or Authors

The original version of this Page was developed by David Moursund.