April 17, 2007 Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold By CORNELIA DEAN
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. For decades, undergraduate women have been moving in ever greater numbers into science and engineering departments at American universities. Yet even as they approach or exceed enrollment parity in mathematics, biology and other fields, there is one area in which their presence relative to men is static or even shrinking: computer science. Women received about 38 percent of the computer science bachelors degrees awarded in the United States in 1985, the peak year, but in 2003, the figure was only about 28 percent, according to the National Science Foundation. At universities that also offer graduate degrees in computer science, only 17 percent of the field's bachelors degrees in the 2003-4 academic year went to women, according to the Taulbee Survey, conducted annually by an organization for computer science research. Since then, many in the field say, the situation has worsened. They say computing is the only realm of science or technology in which women are consistently giving ground. They also worry that the number of women is dropping in graduate programs and in industry. They are concerned about this trend, they say, not just because they want to see young women share the fields challenges and rewards, but also because they regard the relative absence of women as a troubling indicator for American computer science generally and for the economic competitiveness that depends on it. Women are the canaries in the coal mine, Lenore Blum, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, told an audience at Harvard University in March, in a talk on this crisis in computer science. Factors driving women away will eventually drive men away as well, she and others say. These experts play down the two explanations most often offered for flagging enrollment: the dot-com bust and the movement of high-tech jobs offshore. People think there are no jobs, but that is not true, said Jan Cuny, a computer scientist at the University of Oregon who directs a National Science Foundation program to broaden participation in computer science. There are more people involved in computer science now than at the height of the dot-com boom. And there is widespread misunderstanding about jobs moving abroad, said Ed Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington. Companies may establish installations overseas to meet local licensing requirements or in hopes of influencing regulations, he said, but the truth is when companies offshore they are more or less doing it for access to talent.... http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17comp.html?8dpc=&_r=1&oref= slogin&pagewanted=print _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.isoc-ny.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
