Where%20are%20all%20the%20women?%20Jessica%20Howe

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Where are all the women?Jessica Howe

• There is a prevailing opinion among many men
  that academics is an entirely cerebral endeavor
  in which the social roles of men and women have
  no influence. This clearly is not the case.

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Where are all the women?

• In Biology, Chemistry
• In Medicine, Law, Media, Business
• Colhoon Abelson
• Not in Computer Science

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The numbers

• grad faculty
• EECS 17.5 (140/800) 5.6 (7/125)
• CS 18.5 (44/240) 9.1 (4/44)
• AI 24.1 (21/87) 5.9 (1/17)
• AI Web page (1998)
• LCS
• Faculty 12.2
• Researchers 29.7
• Graduate 16.4
• Undergraduate 19.1
• LLCSW (2002)

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The numbers

• EECS
• CS 19.5
• EE 20.3
• EECS Graduate 19.9
• Dept. Statistics (2003)
• This year 25 of admitted graduate students
• Faculty now at 9 women

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Why dont women choose CS?

• Discouraged at an early age
• Lack of role models
• Overly-intense atmosphere, competitive
• Socially solitary work
• The nerd factor
• Other science disciplines are more fitting,
  welcoming
• CS is more suited to men than women?
• Its too hard?

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Okay, so theres not many in CS, but so what?

• Why is this a problem at all?
• Possible Scenarios
• Advertising firms, all Canadian
• Authors news publishers, all frat boys
• Basketball teams, all upper-class rich
• Computer Scientists, all women

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Diverse atmosphere leads to diverse thinking

• Strive towards diversity in gender, race,
  economic backgrounds, etc
• President, National Academy of Engineering
• Without diversity, we limit the set of life
  experiences that are applied, and as a result, we
  pay in opportunity cost - a cost in products not
  built, in designs not considered, in constraints
  not understood, and in processes not invented.

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What does a diverse atmosphere look like?

• Comfort with asking questions independence
  expected, dont want to stand out as ignorant
• To be a healthy environment for all, you must
  feel welcome not exposed or vulnerable
• To be near people like you
• Comfortable gt productive

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Fear Changing the atmosphere dumbing it down

• No, but lowering admissions standards might -
  Dont get these confused!
• Atmosphere changes increase peer support
• Many brilliant women are not here because they
  find more welcoming places elsewhere
• Example
• Vision 1/3 women
• Systems, um, low

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Why do I have to help?

• Responsibility community vs. individual
• Progress doesnt happen on its own
• We have the ability to change the numbers
• It is up to us to do so
• You want students and classmates, right?
• Falling numbers of undergrads
• Uneven attrition rates
• More grads ? more professors ? more role models
  ?more undergrads ? more grads ? .

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What do we do?

• Spertus, Abelson, study on women in School of
  Science, Margolis, Cohoon, CRW
• Broaden discipline stereotypes
• Recruit women
• Retain women through mentoring and encouragement

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Is it just us?

• Through 90s, 16 CS PhD in US

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Why dont more women just come here?

• That would solve a lot of problems
• Thats just like saying get out of poverty
• Social channeling into gender-appropriate careers
  
• They just need to do the same thing men do?
• They just need to work harder?
• The problem goes back deeper than that

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But it started earlier than at the graduate level

• Mit undergrads
• 50 women
• EECS is still lt 20 women
• Nationwide
• 25 undergrad in EECS

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But it started even earlier than that

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So the only way to fix it is to tutor 6 year olds?

• No.
• We can influence our surroundings.

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But it wont make a difference if it really
starts that young?

• We (of both sexes) serve as role models
• We directly influence undergrads
• As members of a respected academic institution we
  influence other academic groups
• We can recruit and retain at the graduate level
• Impact of a woman president?

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Attracting women is being unfair to men?

• Question is it easier for women to be admitted?
  Are women being admitted with lower standards?

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Attracting women is being unfair to men?

• Question is it easier for women to be admitted?
  Are women being admitted with lower standards?
• Grimson No two standards for admission!
• Never had a quota

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The idea of special treatment

• Unequal evaluation special treatment
• Many men are against special treatment of any
  sort
• Many women too
• Many methods are not special treatment but acts
  of convincing women to come
• Goal provide opportunities w/out undercutting
  standings in society

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Why are (younger) women staying away from CS?

• Positive vs. negative feedback
• Computing viewed as a male activity
• Interest in CS later in life gt lack of
  experience when entering college
• Lack of encouragement, support
• Self doubt, acting outside of gender stereotypes
• Many, many, many other reasons

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Why are women staying away from our school, our
labs?

• High pace and pressure
• Atmosphere
• Reputation
• Few choices of women to work with
• Positive vs. negative feedback

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Keep it going on

• Aggressive recruiting of high school girls
  (result 48 of admitted students female)
• Prog.s in place at MIT (RSI, MITES, etc)
• WTP
• IAP 6.001 prep class
• GW6
• Polinas web page

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Things other folks have tried

• CMU, Unlocking the Clubhouse
• Dept. undergraduate statistics
• 1995 7
• 2000 42
• Howd they do that?
• Broad outreach to HS teachers
• Broader admissions criteria
• Curriculum changes

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Official suggestions LCSW

• Double the number of women faculty, staff, and
  UROPS in 5 years
• Acknowledge and address womens unequal
  child-care burden
• Designate one or more faculty ombudspeople
• Oversight meetings to review staff and students
• Improve our mentoring system
• Hold consciousness-raising events

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Summary of questions

• Should vs. How
• Is the lack of women a problem?
• Why do _we_ need to do something about it?
• Why are women staying away?
• What do we do?
• We tried that once, so why will it work now?
• There can always be two extremes, but progress
  comes from many in the middle

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My take on a possibly feisty discussion work
together!

• Sometimes its fun to play devils advocate, but
  less is accomplished
• Constructive vs. destructive
• And what did I say about this being an aggressive
  place?

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Bibliography

• Barriers in Equality in Academia Women in
  Computer Science at MIT many authors, AI Lab
  Report, Feb. 1983.
• Barriers to Equality The Power of Subtle
  Discrimination to Maintain Unequal Opportunity
  Mary Rowe, MIT. web.mit.edu/ombud/ombuds_publicat
  ions.mit
• Must There Be So Few? Including Women in CS J.
  McGrath Cohoon, Intl. Conf. On Software
  Engineering, 2003, pp 668-674.
• Unlocking the Clubhouse Margolis Fisher, MIT
  Press, 2001 (I think thats the year)
• Women Undergraduate Enrollment in EE and CS at
  MIT H. Abelson committee, Jan. 1995.
• www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/hal/women-enrollment-comm/f
  inal-report.html
• Being a Woman Student at MIT or How to Miss the
  Stumbling Blocks in Graduate Education Candace L
  Sidner, AI Lab Report, June 1979.
• Why Are There So Few Women? Ellen Spertus, AI
  Lab Tech Report, 1991.
• www.ai.mit.edu/people/ellens/Gender/pap/pap.html
• Digits of Pi Barriers and Enablers for Women in
  Engineering 2000.
• www.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/dept/aeroastro/www
  /people/widnall/Digits_of_Pi.html
• web.mit.edu/admissions/www/undergrad/freshman/faq/
  summer.html
• web.mit.edu/fnl/ women/women.html
• www.ai.mit.edu/academics/student-life/women.shtml
• www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N3/timeline.3f.html
• web.mit.edu/gep/
• Committee on the Status of Women in Computing
  Research
• www.cra.org/Activities/craw/
• LCSW Summary Recommendations DRAFT - LCS Report
  soon to come out.