Women in Computer Science
Written by Joella Lin
Edited by Jane Ling
Cover Image by Alison Yu
Women have always been underrepresented in computer science, but it’s hard for others to understand the actual scope of the issue until they walk into a co-ed computer science classroom. It only takes a quick glance to realize that the majority of the class is composed of male students and the instructor is likely male too.
Now, a class of mostly male students doesn’t pose a problem if the environment is welcoming and accommodating towards students of all genders, but that’s not always the case. On the surface, it would appear to anyone outside the classroom that every student is treated fairly and given the same opportunities; in reality though, it’s much more likely that the classroom environment favours male students (Yates & Plagnol, 2021).
The masculine culture that is present in computer science classrooms and workplaces is one of many factors that push women away from the field. As the majority of computer science students and instructors are male, there is a tendency to tailor course content to better suit the needs and wants of male students; this could mean discussing topics that male students are interested in or being more open towards suggestions from male students. What this means is that, for women, they are put in a disadvantageous position where they don’t receive the same treatment from their instructors.
As a woman in computer science, I experienced this first hand at a computer science and game design program last summer. Although the program was, overall, a good experience, I couldn’t help but notice the little things in the program that were tailored for the male students. As part of the course, students were asked to analyze different games and their game design mechanics, and most of the games chosen by either the instructors or students were titles from the First-Person Shooter genre. Generally speaking, first-person shooters have a very low female player base, with only 7% being women, and, to my knowledge, none of the female students played shooter games (Yee, 2018). This meant that, for non-players of the games mentioned in class, it was incredibly difficult to join in discussions or even follow along as we had little to no prior knowledge regarding how the game is played. And as most of the games discussed were first-person shooters, it affected the quality of learning for me and those in the same situation as me. It is small moments like these that can put women down in STEM fields like computer science.
Another factor that threatens the participation of women in computer science is stereotypes. It’s believed by many that women are inherently worse than men when it comes to STEM (which has been shown to be false (O’Dea et al., 2018)), and this can lead to early disinterest in STEM fields (Kim, 2021). In addition, stereotypes and masculine culture can lead to feelings of isolation as women may feel that they don’t belong, because they don’t have any shared interests with the group. All of these factors contribute to the low participation of women in both STEM and computer science.
So what can be done to increase the participation of women in STEM and computer science? There have been observations that show that an all-girls environment may help combat the low interest from women in STEM in limiting sex-role stereotyping, but it’s not a foolproof solution (PARK et al., 2012). It’s important for educators and students to be aware of the bias towards men that runs rampant in STEM fields like computer science and make conscious decisions to combat it. For example, referring to my experience mentioned earlier, something that the instructors could have done was to include a wider variety of genres in discussions such as simulator games and RPGs, which have a much higher female player base. There have been efforts made for STEM be more inclusive towards women as well as people of all genders, such as hosting specific STEM programs for non-men, but there is still much to be done to even the playing field.
References
Kim, E. (2021, November 22). Kids, teens believe girls aren’t interested in computer science, study shows. UW News. https://www.washington.edu/news/2021/11/22/kids-teens-believe-girls-arent-interested-in-computer-science-study-shows/
O’Dea, R. E., Lagisz, M., Jennions, M. D., & Nakagawa, S. (2018). Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM. Nature Communications, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06292-0
PARK, H., BEHRMAN, J. R., & CHOI, J. (2012). Single-Sex Education: Positive Effects. Science, 335(6065), 165–166. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41487129
Yates, J., & Plagnol, A. C. (2021). Female computer science students: A qualitative exploration of women’s experiences studying computer science at university in the UK. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10743-5
Yee, N. (2018, June 14). Beyond 50/50: Breaking Down The Percentage of Female Gamers By Genre. Quantic Foundry. https://quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/