Caring about connections: gender and computing

Abstract

For nearly four years (1995-9), we have interviewed female and male computer science students about their experiences studying computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, in one of the top computer science departments in the country (USA). We heard differences in orientations to computing in men's and women's interviews when they arrive at the university. We have traced the effects of these differences on women's sense of belonging and comfort in the program, and on their decisions to stay or leave. While most of the male students describe an early and persistent magnetic attraction between themselves and computers, women much more frequently link their computer science interest to a larger societal framework. Nearly half of the women we interviewed attached their interest in computer science to other arenas, such as medicine, education, space exploration, and the arts. For many of these women, while interest in computing is strong, they are concerned that their study of computer science not require a myopic focus on the machine, or detach them from people and other concerns. We discuss how computer science curriculum and culture frequently mirror and bestow prestige on an orientation toward computing commonly identified with men, while devaluing and pushing to the margins the orientations associated with women. The identification of computing as a male domain is so pervasive that men suffer far less from a mismatch with the dominant culture than do women. In this context, we discuss the importance of "revisioning" computer science, so that the answer to the question: "what is computer science?" incorporates and values women's perspectives as well as men's.