The number of women in the field of computing is disproportionately low (24% in 2008 [1]), and falling. Furthermore, women continue to drop out of the computer science pipeline at many stages along the way. Many women get turned off of computer science in middle school, or high school. In 2008, women only earned 18 percent of computer and information science bachelor’s degrees [1]. In 2003, only one-third of women with a computer science bachelor’s degree were still employed in a science, engineering, or technical (SET) job two years after graduation [1]. On the academic track, few women make it through graduate school in computer science. Even less end up tenured.
At Carnegie Mellon, a research project was started in 1995 on the causes of Computer Science enrollment discrepancies for men and women. Leveraging the results of this research project, the numbers of women starting out in the computer science undergraduate program went from 7% female freshman enrollment in 1995 to 42% female freshman enrollment 5 years later in 2000 [2].
So, problem solved. Right? Well, not quite. For one thing, many faculty members are not aware of this body of research. The increases in female enrollments seen at CMU are very slowly moving (or perhaps not moving at all) to most other schools. Also, the total enrollment for women at CMU now hovers at around 20% [3]: a statistic which researchers at CMU attribute to the completion of an NSF grant received by CMU for training high school CS teachers.
So there is still research to be done. Nonetheless, the lack of women in computer science is no longer a complete mystery. There is a large, effective body of research on this topic — if people take up that research and implement it.
This blog has summaries of and links to articles about women in computing. Perhaps you will be able to implement some of it.
[1] Women in IT: The Facts. 2009. National Center for Women in Technology (ncwit.org).
[2] Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher. MIT Press, 2002.
[3] CMU Factbooks, 1995-2008.