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Gender & ComputingWhy Actively Recruit Girls to CS?Joanne McGrath CohoonUVA Associate ProfessorNCWIT Senior Research ScientistMichigan Tapestry Workshop August 1, 2012

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Why Do We Need to Actively Recruit Girls to CS?

2230% of jobs for college grads will be in computing in 2020Not Just Predicted, but CurrentMore than double students if CS drew from the majority

How CS got the women it hasPositive experiencesEncouragedMath or logic confidenceRewarding, flexible careerEnjoy programming

Persuaded by friendsPath to helping careerSelf-expressionCommunicationDefy stereotypes

What keeps other women out of CS

Lack of information/misconceptionsLittle support and encouragementEducational policies allow choices influenced by stereotypes

Stereotypes reduce confidence and interest7Lack of information aboundsFew students, parents, or teachers (people) know what computer scientists doToo many sources misinform, steer girls away

Too Little Support & EncouragementPeers and authorities Youre studying what?

Women need to explain their choice of CSbut men dont- Cohoon 2006IsolationFeeling like you do not belong- Kissinger et al. 2009

Policies allow stereotype-based choice

-Carter 2006

-Charles & Bradley 2006 Or force choice between academic interests or goalsCarter Going into college, girls are much less likely than boys to have programming experience.

Charles & Bradley countries that offer less curricular choice and steer students based on ability, have more women in computing10

Stereotypes and stereotype threat11

Stereotypes are good Mental shortcuts for generalizing knowledge to other situations

12And stereotypes are badMay lead to mistakes - miscategorization

African Americans13

Easy to form, harder to changeExplicit and implicit preferences for certain groups formed by imagining or by inducingGregg et al. 2006

Common Mistaken Stereotype: Feminine Technical Lagesen 2005 15Stereotype threatFear of confirming negative beliefs about my groupHinders performanceAffects confidence, choices and aspirationsLeads to harsh personal standards, opting out if not metCorrell 2004Stereotypes can create threatening situations

Not just about gender, e.g., age stereotypes reduce memory effectiveness - Chasteen et al. 2005Stereotype threat can be induced in circumstances you would not expect. For example, when white men at Stanford were told the math tests purpose was to test their math ability relative to Asians, they performed much worse on the test. So this phenomenon is not restricted to one sex or race it is just that in certain academic settings, females and ethnic minorities underperform.16

Stereotype Threat masks ability and reduces learning and persistenceRemove threat and Anglo women test betterGood et al. 2008 Note-taking skill reduced by stereotype threat (ST)Appel et al. 2011 Feelings of belonging impaired by STGood et al. 2012

Good, Aronson, Harder, 2008 Calculus Test ResultsGraph: Calculus questions from GRE Subject test were given to college students in an advanced calculus class. Mens and womens course grades were the same.

AP CALC AB 4,700 more passing

Another example showing how race and gender stereotype threats affect performance:before completing a math test, researchers randomly assigned participants to complete a demographics prompt that either had them focus on their gender, their race/ ethnicity, or neither (a control condition). The focus of the demographics section differentially influenced participants performance: Asian women who answered questions about their gender performed worse than participants in the control condition, whereas Asian women who answered questions about their race performed better than participants in the control condition (Shih et al.1999) in Shapiro & Williams 201117Removing threat improves performanceInterventions showed Black students significantly outperformed White students with the same level of past performance. Substantial effectLogel et al. 2012

ST is easy to trigger and particularly affects motivated studentsGender imbalance in roomStereotyped physical spaceAttention called to genderBelief that ability is inherent

Just being a stigmatized minority in the room can trigger stereotype threat, so women in a computing class that is mostly men can feel threatened by the negative stereotypes about female technical abilities.

Room dcor communicates what type of person belongs there, so that a room with Star Trek posters and piles of empty high-caffeine soda cans reduced women students intentions to major in computing. (Cheruyn 2010)

Comments that call attention to gender, such as, Females dont seem to do as well as males with structured top-down programming or even, Were glad that we have at least Susan and Helen to represent women in our class can trigger stereotype threat.

The belief that computing ability is something one either has, or does not have, contributes to stereotype threat for members of the group thought less likely to have that inherent skill. Good, Rattan, Dwek 2012

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Some of the Interventions that Work

Self-affirmation of values Purdie-Vaughns & Garcia 2011Emphasize growth in intelligence - Aronson et al 2002Normalize Good et al. 2008

But only for students in your class

Pictured is Joshua Aronson, NYU assoc professor of Applied Psychology, a major researcher of the subject of stereotype threat.

Remind students of relevant positive characteristics, e.g., You would not have been admitted to this institution unless you were able to succeed here.

Feelings of belonging and identity as a computing person reduce stereotype threat.

Confidence in ones ability to succeed can be built-up to help students persist despite stereotype threats.21

Actively Recruit using messages that counter stereotypesFour reasons few women study CS1.

2.

3.Carter Going into college, girls are much less likely than boys to have programming experience.

Charles & Bradley countries that offer less curricular choice and steer students based on ability, have more women in computing25

4.26What can you do about it?What could you do to undermine the stereotypes and mitigate stereotype threat?NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information TechnologyOur coalition includes more than 250 universities, corporations, and non-profits.

Mobilizing for Change: NCWIT

PART 6: WOMEN AND COMPUTING, cont., WHO BRINGS YOU THIS CAMPAIGN, WHY. Say:. So this is where NCWIT steps in. We look forward to bringing more women into the technology sector and into these good jobs. NCWIT, the National Center for Women & Information Technology is a group of alliances representing over 250 nonprofits, education institutions, corporations and start-ups that hold a shared vision for greater diversity in IT. Each group has projects intended to reform conditions in their sector.28nullBlues57207.176