According to statistics curated by an NPR reporter, from about 1965 until 1984, the number of women in computer science was on the rise. These numbers correlated to the number of women going into the medical field or law; while the the number of women going into those other careers continued rising steadily the number of women in computer science began to decline in 1984. I find it interesting that was the year the Apple Macintosh was released. The ensuing media campaign for the Macintosh included an ad with a bunch of men marching like zombies and a scantily clad large chested woman running down an isle and throwing a hammer at the "Big Brother" figure. I believe that when personal computing started to become popular the marketing was mostly targeting men and wrongly it became a social paradigm that computers were boys toys. I don't know the exact reason for the decline in women in computer science; I do know, however, that the women we have working in computer science now play a vital role in the future of the field and I am grateful for my friends who are women in the industry.
That is an interesting thought. It might be the case that CS has been portrayed as a field exclusive to men, but I do not believe that continues to be the case today. All the adds I usually see for CS have women in them. Nevertheless, it might be the case that this preconceit has been deeply ingrained in society. Of course, there are other things to take into consideration. Maybe, they perceive CS majors as "nerdy" or "geeky", and that's why they avoid it.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some really good points! I personally believe it's a mixture of factors, but in the book I read for this class it says a major factor is that men tend to pick up technology at a younger age and have it as a hobby instead of a major, and women tend to be more social at a young age and have other hobbies in college instead of programming, and as a result women think they don't belong because technology isn't their life.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting about the year 1984. I don't know if it has anything to do with the Apple ad, but I wonder if it isn't connected to the graphical user interface pioneered by Apple with the Macintosh. While counter-intuitive, do you suppose that women are actually turned off by GUIs?
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