Becoming a Computer Scientist A Report by the ACM Committee on The Status of Women in Computer Science by Amy Pearl Martha E. Pollack Eve Riskin Becky Thomas Elizabeth Wolf Alice Wu Reprinted by permission: Amy Pearl, M. Pollack, E. Riskin, B. Thomas, E. Wolf, and A. Wu (1990) "Becoming a Computer Scientist", Communications of the ACM. 33(11), pp. 47-57. See end of this article. t is well known that women are significantly entific or engineering training will continue to increase. underrepresented in scientific fields in the United Because white males have traditionally constituted the vast States, and computer science is no exception. As of majority of trained scientists and engineers in this country, I 1987-1988, women constituted slightly more than half experts have predicted that a critical labor shortage is likely of the U.S. population and 45% of employed workers in the early in the next century [4, 25]. To confront this possibility, U.S., but they made up only 30% of employed computer sci- the federal government has begun to expend resources to entists. Moreover, they constituted only 10% of employed study the problem further. A notable example is the estab- doctoral-level computer scientists. During the same time lishment of a National Task Force on Women, Minorities, period, women made up 20% of physicians and, at the doc- and the Handicapped in Science and Technology. Their final toral level, 35% of psychologists, 22% of life scientists, and report, issued in December of 1989, lists a number of gov- 10% of mathematicians employed in the U.S. On the other ernment and industrial programs aimed at preventing a labor hand, there are some disciplines in which women represent shortage by increasing the number of women and minorities an even smaller proportion at the doctoral level: in 1987-88, trained as scientists and engineers [5]. 8% of physical scientists, and only 2.5% of engineers were In light of these facts, the Committee on the Status of women [21]. (1) The underrepresentation of women in com- Women in Computer Science, a subcommittee of the ACM's puter science is alarming for at least two reasons. First, it Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights, was raises the disturbing possibility that the field of computer established with the goal of studying the causes of women's science functions in ways that prevent or hinder women from continued underrepresentation in the field, and developing becoming part of it. If this is so, those in the discipline need proposed solutions to problems found. It is the committee's to evaluate their practices to ensure that fair and equal treat- belief that the low number of women working as computer ment is being provided to all potential and current computer scientists is inextricably tied up with the particular difficul- scientists. Practices that exclude women are not only uneth- ties that women face in becoming computer scientists. ical, but they are likely to thwart the discipline's progress, as Studies show that women in computer science programs potential contributors to the field are discouraged from par- in U.S. universities terminate their training earlier than men ticipation. do. Between 1983 and 1986 (the latest year for which we The second reason for concern about the underrepresen- have such figures) the percentage of bachelor's degrees in tation of women in computer science relates to demographic computer science awarded to women was in the range of trends in the U.S., which suggest a significant decrease in the 36-37%, while the percentage of masters degrees was in the number of white males entering college during the next range of- 28-30%. During the same time span, the per- decade. At the same time, the number of jobs requiring sci- centage of doctoral degrees awarded to women has only Vol. 34, No. 2, 2002 June 135 ~c2~ SIGCSE Bulletin been in the range of 10-12%, and it has remained at that pipeline shrinkage pattern seen in computer science is com- level, with the exception of a slight increase in 1989 [ 16, 21 ]. mon to most sciences. Thus, one of the first questions we Moreover, the discrepancy between the numbers of men and need to ask is: what, if anything, is different about computer women continues to increase when we look at the people science? Are there any special characteristics of the disci- who are training the future computer scientists: women cur- pline that lead to unusual problems for women? Studies rently hold only 6.5% of the faculty positions in the comput- addressing these questions have been undertaken by both er science and computer engineering departments in the 158 computer scientists and social scientists, and have identified Ph.D.-granting institutions included in the 1988-1989 cultural factors that are significant contributors to women's Taulbee Survey (See Communications September 1990). In special experience in computing. These factors range from fact, a third of these departments have no female faculty influences present in elementary-school educational soft- members at all [16]. This pattern of decreasing representa- ware through the experiences of computer science graduate tion is generally consistent with that of other scientific and students. engineering fields [4, 25]. It is often described as "pipeline Computers are encountered today by most children in shrinkage": as women move along the academic pipeline, this country more so than the artifacts of other science and their percentages continue to shrink. engineering fields, even if they never study computer sci- The focus of this report is pipeline shrinkage for women ence in a formal educational setting. The earliest computer in computer science. We describe the situation for women at artifacts that children encounter are not gender neutral. all stages of training in computer science, from the precol- Recreational and educational software programs reflect the lege level through graduate school. Because many of the gender biases and stereotypes of their designers, and studies problems discussed are related to the lack of role models for reveal that educational software is generally designed to women who are in the process of becoming computer scien- appeal to boys. For a host of reasons that are beyond the tists, we also concern ourselves with the status of women scope of this report, girls and boys have been shown to pre- faculty members. We not only describe the problems, but fer different kinds of software programs. It is thus disturbing also make specific recommendations for change and encour- that, in an experimental setting, teachers instructed to design age further study of those problems whose solutions are not software for students tended to build programs that have the yet well understood. characteristics that boys prefer, and few characteristics that Of course, our focus on computer science in the univer- girls prefer-even when they are aware of these differences sity by no means exhausts the set of issues that are relevant [13]. to an investigation of women in computer science. Most In addition to abstract characteristics of software use, notably, we do not directly address issues that are of concern the cultural values embedded in educational software and exclusively or primarily to women in industry. Although computer games that target adolescents almost exclusively some of the problems we discuss are common to all women reflect what is commonly identified as adolescent male cul- computer scientists, there are, without doubt, other problems ture. The predominant themes of recreational computer that are unique to one group or the other. Nonetheless, the games are war, battles, crimes, destruction, and traditionally committee felt that an examination of the process of becom- male-oriented sports and hobbies [14]. Thus, it is not sur- ing a computer scientist provided a good starting point for a prising that boys use computers in courses and summer wider investigation of women in the field. Clearly, to camps both earlier and more often than do girls. increase the number of women in industrial computer sci- Experience in computer use, and a resulting comfort ence, one must first increase the number of women trained in with and affinity for computing, have a strong effect on the the discipline. Thus, we need to consider why women stop study of computer science in the university. When college their training earlier than men: too few women with bache- students encounter computer science, they already perceive lor's degrees in computer science translates into too few its strong cultural component. Those who are knowledgeable women in both industry and academia. Moreover, because of about computers are differentiated by special names (wiz- the documented positive effects of same-sex role models ards, hackers, wheels), and are expected to have distin- [12], it is also important to consider why women drop out in guishing characteristics, language, and behaviors. This higher numbers than do men even later in their academic "hacker elite" system, along with the relatively new aca- training: too few women with doctorate degrees results in demic structure of computer science which may seem cha- too few women faculty members. This in turn means inad- otic and confusing to students, results in many "computing equate numbers of role models for younger women in the dropouts" who are alienated by the foreign culture [23]. Of process of becoming computer scientists. course, these problems may affect male as well as female students, but the situation is likely to be more pronounced What is Special about Computer Science? for females who, because of the differences in early experi- There are many professions in which women are underrepre- ences with computers, are less likely to be a part of the elite.