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Being a Woman in Computing

Being a Woman in Computing. Janie Irwin, Carla Brodley , Gilda Garretón Penn State, Tufts, Oracle. Outline. Opening statements How women contribute to computing Family-friendly policies to look for in a working environment Panel discussion

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Being a Woman in Computing

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  1. Being a Woman in Computing Janie Irwin, Carla Brodley, Gilda Garretón Penn State, Tufts, Oracle

  2. Outline • Opening statements • How women contribute to computing • Family-friendly policies to look for in a working environment • Panel discussion • Recognizing and dealing with “uncomfortable situations” • Closing statements

  3. Why diversity? • Increases an organization’s adaptability – more viewpoints, skills, and experiences • Broadens the service range – men and women, and the global marketplace • Gives more effective execution – higher productivity, profit, and ROI • “ Research links diversity with increased sales revenue and profits, more customers,” Cedric Herring, University of Illinois at Chicago http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/03/31/research.links.diversity.with.increased.sales.revenue.and.profits.more.customers

  4. You’re a woman!

  5. How women contribute • Building teams/communities • Being consensus builders • Being good collaborators • With their organizational skills • Being excellent computer scientists

  6. Family-friendly policies • In academia • Tenure clock stoppage on childbirth • Convenient daycare, nursing facilities • Nanny/baby support for conference travel • In industry • Flexible work • WFH (working from home) when needed • Performance based on project results, not working hours

  7. Recognizing and dealing with “uncomfortable”Advisor “situations”

  8. Scenario A • Your advisor makes you uncomfortable with his level of familiarity, which is different than how he talks and/or interacts with other students in his research group.

  9. Scenario B • When there are visitors to the lab, your faculty advisor/project leader usually asks some of the lab members to present demos and describe their work. The few females in the lab have noticed that typically males are selected to do these presentations--even when the females have the same or more expertise.

  10. Recognizing and dealing with “uncomfortable” Male student “situations”

  11. Because you’re a woman

  12. Scenario C • You are the only woman in the group and your colleagues meet every morning/afternoon at the break room for a coffee break. Most of the time they talk about "boring" subjects however sometimes they discuss important topics related to the current project. Should you join the conversation?

  13. Plain old stupidity

  14. Scenario D • A male student in the class you are TA-ing keeps hitting on you. You are single and are also attracted to him. What do you do?

  15. Scenario E • A trail of men follow you around at conferences, including senior men. None of them seem interested in talking with you about your research. They just keep asking you if you want to go out for drinks.

  16. Recognizing and dealing with “uncomfortable” Department politics “situations”

  17. Scenario F • Dr. Fong asks you to help out with the Graduate Recruiting Committee because 'they need a woman'. You end up doing a lot of this kind of department service and are wondering if its worth the time and effort. But, should you/how can you say no?

  18. Scenario G • You are really starting to feel that Dr. X (NOT your advisor) is inappropriate in his interactions with you. What do you do about it? Should you report it? If so, to whom?

  19. Recognizing and dealing with “uncomfortable” Family “situations”

  20. Family

  21. Scenario H • Amrita announces that she is pregnant.  Her advisor, Dr. Fong, congratulates her.  Then he tells her that (due to 'funding regulations') Amrita will lose her funding during her maternity leave, and with it her health insurance.  He says she should think about her future in the department, and assigns her labmate Alex to 'catch up on what Amrita has been doing'. 

  22. Your “uncomfortable situations” that we haven’t yet covered

  23. Closing Statement • You are intelligent. • You are creative. • You can do it.

  24. Resources • Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia, by Emily Toth • Kidding Ourselves: Breadwinning, Babies, and Bargaining Power, by Rhona Mahoney • Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher and William Ury • Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, by Lois Frankel • Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever

  25. Backup slides and additional scenarios that we didn’t have time to include

  26. Janie’s heroine • Fran Allen – 1st woman to win the Turing Award (in 2007) • Pioneer in optimizing compilers (code optimization and parallelization) • 1st female IBM Fellow (in1989) • ACM & IEEE Fellow, Member of NAE, AAAS • Supporter of other women in CSE and an active volunteer

  27. Carla’s heroines • Senior women in CRA-W • Jan Cuny • Lori Clarke • Carla Ellis • Mary-Jane Irwin • Mary-Lou Soffa • and many others

  28. Gilda’s heroines • The strong women in my family • Mom who values high education even though she never went to college • Grandmom who was superb in multitasking/community work • Sister who provides down-to-earth feedback about work/life balance – 1st mentor at school • Aunt who has demonstrated multiple times the power of positive thinking

  29. Scenario A - Hidden • At meetings, Peter and Mike are increasingly disrespectful towards you and Jenny:  they ignore you, interrupt you, and/or poach your ideas. Dr. Smith, your advisor, doesn't seem to notice.

  30. Scenario A - Hidden • Your advisor keeps cancelling your individual research meetings although he never seems to do this with his male students. In research group meetings you always feel like a 3rd wheel. You are feeling adrift. You are at the point that you really need his advice and support. How do you get his attention?

  31. Scenario D - Hidden • A male student in the class you are TA-ing, asks for an extension (regrade) and when you answer negatively due to course policy, he immediately asks the other (male) TA if you are right

  32. Scenario I - Hidden • An important deadline is coming up and your group has decided to work remotely all weekend to finish the report/paper/project What do you do? Do you tell them you can't concentrate due to family duties or do you not say anything and work overnight/overweekends?

  33. Scenario K - Hidden • You got assigned to a new project and meetings/conf calls are at incompatible hours with your family duties (before 8AM, after 5PM). How do you tell your advisor/boss? Or do you just quit the project?

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