Gender Issues in Computer Science Education
In the early 1980s some 35% of applicants for CS degrees at UK Universities were women, but now the figure is closer to 10%. This trend shows no sign of abating.
Culprits?
Three major factors repeatedly present themselves:
- The increase in the use of computers in schools combined with the introduction of Information Technology (IT) as a core strand within the National Curriculum.
- The lack of any current female role models.
- A decline in the number of students previously attending single-sex rather than co-educational schools.
An investigation of these factors is presented in Arresting the Decline
Why do the girls who choose CS do so?
Any discouragement / lack of encouragement that female students perceive is likely to occur at the pre-university level. Indeed it can easily be argued that the battle to encourage female applicants has been won by the time they are actually registered for the degree. Why do they register?
·
Computing seemed
most interesting.
·
All I had to go
on was my GCSE but I wanted a challenge.
·
Computing, or at
least programming, was something I enjoyed.
·
I really wanted
to learn proper programming.
·
I went to a
technology school. I was just
fascinated.
·
Getting ‘the
computing bug’...!
Is the gender imbalance an issue for them?
- If
you’re into it they don’t care if you’ve got bumps and wear a skirt.
- The
guys are alright. You can sit next
to anyone.
- I was apprehensive at first but it doesn’t make any difference at all.
- At
first I felt like giving up ‘cos everybody else knew so much and I knew
nothing, but one guy came up and said “we must know enough else they
wouldn’t let us on the course”.
Publications
·
Where have all the
girls gone? What entices female students to apply for Computer Science degrees
·
Arresting the
Decline: how can we encourage female students back into Computer Science.