I know Jenn said that this list was discussing some Big Issues way back
in the day, but most of the issues discussed here are less sweeping
these days.
So: Women and professional computing careers, why are there so few of us
(relative to men)?
And should there be more of us?
I tend to work from the following premisses:
1) Women are innately as competant at the kind of things that make one
good at computers.
2) Women are not as represented as well in computing fields as men.
Anecdotal evidence for 2 is: every place I've done technical work, there
have been at most 10% women. Except for a brief stint in IT in the
public service, where the ratio was much higher, interestingly.
There are exactly two women doing advanced computing science (of about
30) in third year at Sydney Uni this year. There are somewhat more at
the other level, perhaps about 10 or 20% of the total course.
There are about five women (of about 30) doing advanced pure maths
incidently. Similar in physics (which I don't study), much higher in
chemistry, biochemistry, psychology.
Interestingly the proportion is much higher in both courses in first
year (I teach two first year classes, combined they are about 40%
women). Maths is compulsory in the first year of our science degrees,
and so is almost 50% female, immediately falling to about 20% in second
year.
Therefore:
Something is holding women back.
So, various threads could arise from this:
Is it true that something is holding women back?
If so, what is it?
When is it happening?
Is it desirable to have more women in computing?
Is it desirable to have them spread across all sub-fields, ie
admin, support, programming, documentation, or is women in some
parts sufficient to break the camels back?
Whose responsibility is it to get more women into computing (and related
fields)?
The individual woman.
Individuals, say individual parents or teachers?
Educational institutions?
The government?
Businesses?
Women?
In technical fields?
Outside technical fields?
Society?
It is of course also possible to dispute either my premises, the implied
premises, and my conclusion (since it doesn't follow explicitly).
Mary.
--
Mary Gardiner
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
GPG Key ID: 77625870
_______________________________________________
issues mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.linux.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/issues
