Greetings all, The New York Times has a rather interesting article on the issue of women in computer science and steps universities have taken to address the relatively small percentage of female students overall.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17comp.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin This is an issue we've mentioned here a few times, and this article does a nice job of discussing some of the concerns and approaches taken at various universities. I do think there are things universities can and should do to attract and retain students, but of course there are issues that cut more generally, and in my view at least the internet, the web, etc. are not precisely friendly or inviting to women. One case in point, you perhaps know how gmail recommends links based on the content of your email. As I saved this message, I was referred to links about "pretty white women" and another too coarse to mention. I think the content you see in this note is pretty innocent, and I'm not trying to blame google here, it's just a reflection of web content and also how people advertise and how google's advertising program works. So...no easy answers here... Ted -- Ted Pedersen http://www.d.umn.edu/~tpederse
