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Environment Steers Females Away from Computer Science

(Lindsay Hock) Permanent link

Lindsay Headshot with Name and Title

Stereotypes could be what drive females away from the computer science fields according to a press release issued by the Univ. of Washington. Being a female, the first thing I think about computer scientists are men with beer bellies that stay up all night coding, have no social life, and play video games or watc Star Trek (and not the new movie, the old shows) religiously. According to a study done by researchers at the Univ. of Washington, these stereotypes are brought on by the appearance of the environment people work in. I can only wonder about how people might stereotype me or someone that has my job.

The study claims that like my conception, people, especially females, often think of computer science people/majors as computer geeks surrounded by computer games, science fiction memorabilia, and junk food. All of which do not appeal to the typical women. Trust me, take it from one. Such conceptions help create what the lead author, Sapna Cheryan, calls ambient belong, “or the feeling that one fits or doesn’t fit in somewhere.” This ambient belonging is caused on a first impression basis of when walks into a room for the first time or looks at objects for the first time and passing judgment on that environment from such things.

An experiment was set up involving over 250 female and male student who were not studying computer science to asses the reasons why women in the field were dropping and why women in the fields of biology, mathematics, and chemistry are increasing. Cheryan had the students enter a small classroom that either contained objects that were stereotypically associated with computer science (Star Trek prosters, video game boxes, Coke cans), or one that held non-stereotypical items (nature posters, art, dictionary). Although the students were told to ignore their surroundings when filling out questionnaires on their attitudes towards computer science, women that were exposed to the stereotypical setup expressed less interest in computer science than those who were in the non-stereotypical room. This also leads to the fact that students may choose their major based on what the classrooms, halls, and offices look like.

I guess Star Trek is a turn off to females. 

Posted by Lindsay Hock at 12/21/2009 8:08 AM

Star Trek and the other items that you mentioned should have nothing to do with computer science. Firstly, it should be pointed out to the young ladies that the first programmer was Ada the Countess of Lovelace, who was the daughter of the English Poet, Lord Byron. A reproduction of one of the portraits of Ada in her twenties would serve to prove that a woman can be a programmer and be good looking. Her latter portrait, when she evidently had cancer, which is frequently shown, is awful.
The present computer curriculum, which is based on the C series of languages and the UNIX operating system partially negatively selects against people including women, who have the appropriate sense of readability and desire to communicate. Software engineers need communication skills if others are going to be able to maintain their code. They also need a strong desire for safety and a resistance against taking chances. Presently, we have the image of the heroic genus programmer. If the programmer has to be a genus to fix the mess, the manager probably was incompetent.
In short, web page creation is a good place to start in high school. This can be followed by XML schema creation and forms creation. Software engineering can be taught together with the SPARK subset of Ada. There probably is some sexual dimorphism in software development capabilities; however, the curriculum can and should be adjusted to favor traits that will emphasize the construction of usable, reliable, and maintainable software. I suspect that under those conditions, the ladies will do quite well.
Bob Leif
Posted by: Bob Leif at 12/21/2009 3:16 PM


In addition to Countess Ada, one should mention one of the great computer scientists of the 20th Century, Grace Hopper. She had a PhD from Yale and eventually became an admiral in the US Navy. She was "there" at the beginning, being Aiken's collaborator on the Mark I computer during WWII. One of the trivialities she's known for is being the "discoverer" of the first computer "bug" (literally, a moth in the Mark II computer). After the war, she was with the company that became UNIVAC, developing the first English-language compiler. Eventually, she gave us the COBOL programming language.
A while back I spoke to someone who had taken one of her classes. He still had one of her handouts, a short length of wire, which she had told the class was a "nanosecond". (Its length was the distance an electron travels in one nanosecond. This was 35 years ago.) He said that one of her great gifts was the ability to take a difficult concept and morph it into something that would stay with you for decades.
As the father of a smart daughter, it has annoyed me greatly that these two great contributors to computer science, Ada and Hopper, are barely recognized as the major players they were, much less as contrary to the general notion that all computer scientists are out-of-touch geeks.
Posted by: Hal Amick at 12/22/2009 1:21 PM


I never know quite what to make of the type of research reported in the <a

href="http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=54341">UWash press release<a>. Either the

stereotypes the women in this study were exposed to were true, in which case they were

right in feeling that they wouldn't fit into the environment, or they were not true and the

women weren't curious enough to find that out.

The quotes from the psychologist running the study are revealing.

"These studies suggest objects such as science fiction books and Star Trek posters

communicate whether or not a person belongs in an environment. "Instead of trying to change

the women who do not relate to the stereotype, our research suggests that changing the

image of computer science so that more women feel they fit in the field will go a long way

to recruiting them into computer science," said Cheryan.

So the purpose of this study is to deceive people into entering a field they discover they

don't like only when it's too late to back out? This is why Gross Anatomy is in the first

year of med school. Better the discovery that mammals in general and humans in particular

are filled with disgusting glop should come before you spend three years of your life and

$150,000 of daddy's money learning a business you can't stomach.

"We want to attract more people to computer science. The stereotype is not as alienating to

men as women, but it still affects them as well. A lot of men may also be choosing to not

enter the field because of the stereotype. We need to broaden the image of the field so

both women and men feel more welcome. In workplaces and universities we can do this by

changing the way offices, hallways and labs look. The media can also play a role by

updating the image of computer science. It would be nice for computer scientists in movies

and television to be typical people, not only computer geeks."

In other words, in order to attract people who don't really want to be computer geeks, make

the environment unpleasant for real computer geeks. Is there a word for this tactic in

psychology? Because there isn't in the real world.

One further thought. Has Cheryan considered that the indifference of women (and a "lot of

men") to the computer field might possibly be rooted in seeing their parents and the

parents of friends and acquaintances laid off from the computer industry and their jobs

shipped to India? Hm?
Posted by: wagnert in atlanta at 12/23/2009 6:52 PM


We technical types who are interested in many other things than marketing total ignore the role, value and impact of marketing and image. Like it or not, marketing and image have profound effect on preceptions and decisions. We ignore marketing and image at our peril. We are naive.
Posted by: Educator at 1/1/2010 8:06 PM


Re: My previous comment. Please change "total" to read "totally".
Posted by: Educator at 1/1/2010 8:08 PM


that's quite a swipe at generalizing Star Trek; although it's safe to assume the negative, I was married to a female trekkie for awhile and the personality type is rare but not extinct. I have a lot of complaints about software people myself and hesitate calling them engineers, I agree with your label and think it is correct to call them Computer Scientists(even though there are very few actual CS jobs in the world). Very little engineering is required in writing software. Yes, some small percentage of the work exists but generally no.
The Programmer stereotype is not unearned, my favorite is the one in Jurassic Park...
I don't think it's a bad thing that females shun the career. There is nothing postive or attractive about it to me! The blame if you want to call it that, rests with both sides, employers and employees: social deviant kids have always been attracted to gizmos and pranks. The engineering professional, which spawned the academic CS field, has been on the decline for a long time. Professional engineering has slowly lost its value and prestige through generations of shortcuts, abbreviations, and invention; it's easy to be an engineer nowdays, or so the sales pitch goes...and most nerdy kids are not afraid to work at what they love for free or just the challenge of recreational mathemetics...lots of engineers, programmers, and inventors have been taken advantage of, abused, and just plain ripped-off by employers and 'business people.'
There is no reward for a 'job well done' as the job is never 'done' when rushing something to market before your neighbor.
There is no learning or value in writing good code, machine time is no longer charged by the micro-second(if it was, M$ would never have flourished!)
There are lots of examples and the more frustrated and less talented people leave the profession after enough disappointment; gee no mystery there, but hard learning it is; just look at space program: how many bean counters does it take to calculate the path to Mars? One contractor I know has as many non-technical people in a program as anybody with a brain. When it comes time to cut costs for a product, it's the engineers who are let go, not the bean counters, and then customers end up buying a Schedule and have no hardware or software to show for their investment! The high credentials required and red-tape-do-nothing office environment for really lousy pay should make anyone want to run to another way to make a living. I know HS teachers that are paid as well or better than most engineers at any aerospace company and they have less pressure and won't be in the lab on weekends...when kids ask me about my profession, I say "go learn something else!"
.the cynical engineer.
Posted by: 1Sparky at 1/4/2010 7:12 PM


Maybe having two gifted, profesional daughters has spoiled me, but if one of my daughter's said that she chose her profession based on the office decor, I'd have to disown her.
If young women are staying away from Computer Science because of perceived stereotypes, then, in my opinion, they are setting equality back 30 years. A true scientist doesn't let him/herself be swayed by stereotypes.
Posted by: JPSartre12 at 1/7/2010 10:31 AM


The image of long hours, no life outside of work and a field with no permanent knowledge rather than decor or putative startrek antipathies may steer women away from computer fields
Posted by: RTM at 1/10/2010 5:34 PM


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