If anyone is interested in learning more about some of the reasons women are underrepresented in CS, or don't stick with the discipline, I'd suggest Unlocking the Clubhouse (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47054696). I found it to be pretty resonant regarding myself and my undergrad CS experience (although I luckily had a good enough one that I graduated, went into software development, and actually stayed in the field for 5 years before leaving to get my MLIS).
~Arianna (a lurker up until now, I do believe) On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Erik Hetzner <erik.hetz...@ucop.edu> wrote: > At Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:35:54 -0500, > Laura B. Palumbo wrote: > > > > As a soon to be librarian and a female engineer, I can tell you that your > > numbers generally reflect the status of women in the STEM areas as a > > whole. According to the Economics and Statistics Administration, women > > hold less than 25% of tech jobs (2009). I think that you are right on > > target in wondering how to attract more women into the techy end of > > libraries; in addition to promoting STEM areas to young women, I feel > that > > a good place to start is to advocate for more integration of coding > > (beyond basic web design) into required library courses. > > Hi all, > > CS (computing, programming, library tech, etc.) is especially > distressing because women are a) underrepresented when compared to > most other STEM fields (save perhaps engineering or physics), and b) > the underrepresentation of women has been getting *worse* in CS over > the past 20 years. > > See, e.g., [1] and [2] > > best, Erik > > 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/business/16digi.html > 2. > http://crookedtimber.org/2011/02/04/gender-divides-in-philosophy-and-other-disciplines/ > > Sent from my free software system <http://fsf.org/>. > >