Climbing onto the shoulders of giants

Abstract

The "incredible shrinking pipeline" problem has become the euphemism for the dilemma of declining numbers of women seeking bachelor's degrees in a computing discipline. The problem is well recognized, and many have suggested reasons for it. Unfortunately, much of what has been written is based on anecdotal evidence or inferences made from statistical results from small samples of very specific groups in the computing disciplines. There have been few multi-disciplinary approaches to analyze the problem with even fewer attempts to create a model that might explain it. This paper is the end of a beginning. Having received a National Science Foundation grant to study gender-based differences and ethnic and cultural models in the computing disciplines, the principle investigators document the work that has led to launching a nationwide study of the problem to commence in Fall 2004.