Never would I’ve thought that being one of only four females in a class of twenty would be the “norm”. Unfortunately, that’s one of the harsh realities of computer science—a field of study where only 18% of degree recipients are female, a number that has been steadily declining since the 1980s. Granted, Northeastern is a different case. In fact, within the past several years, there’s been a 15% increase in female undergraduates in the Khoury College of Computer Science. The school pins this rise to its initiatives towards both combine majors and minors. With over 25 combined computer science majors, it isn’t hard to believe a large fraction of Khoury students pursue another degree along with computer science.
Nonetheless, what’s caused this decline in female work in the computer field? When I first heard this statistic, I found myself in disbelief as to why the number’s been decreasing rather than increasing. If more women have joined the workforce, wouldn’t it make more sense for more women to be in STEM? And yes, while that is true, the turning times of technology have driven women out of the tech world for reasons ranging from history to society. Take Hidden Figures for example; a media set during the space race with three women invested in mathematics, striving to make their presence known in the aerospace field. Back then, technology was limited to only warfare and communication. In fact, one of the main morals, in the end, was that the coordinates determined by the computer were inferior to that computed by a human—specifically that of the protagonist. But as technology becomes more advanced and stress on automation is encouraged, we no longer see the same interest throughout genders.
Prof Dame Wendy Hall, director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, believes that the gender gap and the male stereotype can be dated back to the creation of the home computer in the early 80s when they were strongly marketed as gaming systems for men. She states, “Women were turned off computing in the 80s,” expanding with. “Computers were sold as toys for the boys. Somehow that cultural stigma has stuck in the west in a way that we can’t get rid of and it’s just getting worse.” This cultural trend from the 80s, while has gotten better, is still implemented largely in the western hemisphere. I remember talking with my uncle a couple of days ago and, though I mostly tune out what he says, there was one thing that stood out to me: As a senior manager at Google, the number of female applicants he receives is close to 1 in 5. Additionally, when his coworkers encourage him to hire more women, he finds it difficult to even receive a sufficient number of resumes. This is not surprising either: In a 2017 diversity report from Google, the updated workforce data shows that women make up 31% of all employees. However, only twenty percent of tech workers are women.
So what do we do? More intrusively, how do we remove that stigma while allowing for women to be comfortable in the computer field? Lana Verschage, director of Women in Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology, points to more opportunities for girls in middle school or younger to gain exposure to computing. She argues, “Oftentimes, kids need to take part in special extracurricular programs in order to learn about computing – that shouldn’t be the case.” Rather, Verschage says every child should be learning some code, like a second language. Similarly, other experts like Kathleen Fisher, professor and chair of the Computer Science Department in the School of Engineering at Tufts University, even encourage requiring some kind of computer class in secondary or higher education—as many do with English or math. The overall approach seems to be to expose women to these fields early on, even prior to college, so they can make their own decision of their feelings towards CS, rather than being influenced by societal pressures.
Whatever the solution may be, one thing is clear: it’s important now more than ever to be unhinged with our passions in the growing tech world.