Gender and Technology

1. Gender and Technology Elaine Rich Dept. of Computer Sciences

2. Males and Females are Different • The Women’s Health Initiative http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/whywhi.htm • Games and entertainment http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/womeningames.mspx • Communication styles http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~ear/JustTannenPart.ppt

3. Is Inequity a Problem? • Women buy more jewelry than men do. Is this a problem?

4. No, but it is for computing • The consumer perspective: Do women reap equal benefits from technology? • The good jobs perspective • The pipeline effect on our economy perspective. Is global competitiveness at stake?

5. The Consumer Perspective • Are women taught to use computing? • Is technology marketed to women? • Is technology designed for women?

6. Teaching Computing to Girls • 16% of students who take the AP CS exam are girls. • The learning environment is key. http://www.ao.uiuc.edu/ijet/v1n1/bain/index.html • And all-girls robotics clubs are taking off.

7. Advertising • http://www.utpjournals.com/jour.ihtml?lp=simile/issue21/johnson1.html

8. Technology Advertising Time for Casio to Grow Up DisGraceful Award for March 13, 2001 ad.

9. Software Advertising October 2002 GraceNet Award scooped by Peter deLevett, reporter for the San Jose Mercury News.

10. Gender-Matched Software • Gender neutral looks a lot like the male version • Stress at using “other” software increases in public settings • Correlated with expectations of success vs. failure See Huff paper

11. The Jobs Perspective From Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment change 2004-2014 (in 1000s) % Home health aides 350 56 Network systems and data communications analysts 126 55 Medical assistants 202 52 Physician assistants 31 50 Computer software engineers, applications 222 48 Physical therapist assistants 26 44 Dental hygienists 68 43 Computer software engineers, systems software 146 43 Dental assistants 114 43 Personal and home care aides 287 41 Network and computer systems administrators 107 38 Database administrators 40 38 Physical therapists 57 37 Forensic science technicians 4 36

12. The Jobs Perspective Veterinary technologists and technicians 21 35 Diagnostic medical sonographers 15 35 Physical therapist aides 15 34 Occupational therapist assistants 7 34 Medical scientists, except epidemiologists 25 34 Occupational therapists 31 34 Preschool teachers, except special education 143 33 Cardiovascular technologists and technicians 15 33 Postsecondary teachers 524 32 Hydrologists 3 32 Computer systems analysts 153 31 Hazardous materials removal workers 12 31 Biomedical engineers 3 31 Employment, recruitment, and placement specialists 55 30 Environmental engineers 15 30 Paralegals and legal assistants 67 30

13. Who Will Fill Those Jobs? • Either we will. • Or someone else will.

14. Who Designs and Builds Computer Technology? • Attracting students to study it • Retaining students • Career paths

15. A Bit of History 1945 ENIAC The first electronic digital computer

16. The Early Programmers • The women of the Eniac • Grace Murray Hopper

17. Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USNR, (1906-1992) The first compiler The “high-level” programming language Cobol A computer “bug” http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer_bug_large.htm

18. Some Trends • Women studying CS in the US peaked in about 1983. The number has declined since then, while other measures of women’s academic achievements have increased.

21. The Rest of the World

22. Why Have the US Numbers Gone Down? • Games attract boys: The Turing Scholars evidence. • High school students think they know what computing is about (and who is supposed to do it). • It’s solitary. • It doesn’t benefit society. • It’s for boys. • It’s for geeks. • Not cool. • Don’t have other interests. • The self-confidence factor.

23. Women Students – the CMU Story • In 1995 - entering class in CS: 7% women • In 2000 - entering class in CS: 42% women • Studies in the 90s: Women reported feeling isolated, intimidated • Studies circa 2005: Many fewer differences between women and men. • Why? • Women no longer an extreme minority • Recruiting changed to emphasize talent rather than prior programming experience. See: • Unlocking the Clubhouse • Blum and Frieze paper

24. Women Students - the UT Story • First Bytes • Women in Turing Scholars • But today only 12% of our undergraduate students are women.

25. Career Paths • Books and specializations • ACM programming languages study

26. What’s Your Specialization?Authors in a Sample from the P-H CS List 2006

27. What Programming Languages Do You Know? • A survey conducted between June, 2000 and April, 2001. (CACM 47:1, Jan. 2004) • 83% of respondents were male. • Average number of programming languages was 3.25 (males), 2.53 (females). • For people with < 1 year experience, average number was 2.38 (males) 2.03 (females). • For workers over 40, average number was 2.92 (males) 2.23 (females).

28. What Programming Languages Do You Know? All workers.

29. What Programming Languages Do You Know? Workers with < 1 year experience.

30. And Now Add Ethnic Diversity • The numbers are so small that statistics tell us little. See the short note by Valerie Taylor

31. Summary • Computing needs women. • Women need computing. • There is no evidence that women aren’t good at it. • There is no compelling evidence that many of them couldn’t be fascinated by it. • There are steps we can take to turn the tide, particularly with girls before they enter college.