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ACM-W NSF Grant
Contact:Chris Morgan
Tina Angelone IMMEDIATE
Sharp Decrease in Women Earning Computer Science Degrees
NEW YORK, November 9, 1998. The Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W) announced today that it would take steps to analyze and help reverse a disturbing gender gap problem. Recent studies by groups such as the American Association of University Women show a dramatic drop in the ratio of women to men involved in computing from high school to graduate school.
The ACM-W will conduct a one-year study of the shrinking pipeline for women in computer science, to be financed by a grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Results will appear on the ACM-W web site at the conclusion of the study.
ACM President Dr. Barbara Simons feels the problem is rooted in our culture, and must be attacked from that angle. "The facts are clear and disturbing. Women make up less than a third of the nation's computer programmers and computer scientists. That spells trouble for our industry. We need to attack the problem by examining the societal factors that are keeping girls and women from entering the computing field. To do this, we are examining computer science
research about all age groups. If you send the message that computers are not for girls or women, they'll simply be less likely to enter the field. Now, thanks to the generosity of the National Science Foundation, we have the means to analyze the problem and, with luck, begin to solve it."
There are many contributing factors to the gender gap problem, according to Simons, including: the lingering, false societal stereotype that girls are "not good" at math; the preponderance of computer games aimed at boys; the many male-oriented on-line discussion groups that are often sexist; and the ubiquitous presence of pornography on the Internet. A related problem is that few women hold positions of power in the computer industry, a self-perpetuating situation because of the lack of role models and potential mentors. For example, less than 20% of the members of The World Wide Web Consortium staff, which sets the standard for HTML and other Web protocols, are women.
The ACM plans to gather as much of the existing research as
possible about the gender gap problem to provide a coherent direction
for future work. The new study has three goals:
The project team will consist of members of ACM-W. Denise Gurer, ACM-W
Co-Chair and Computer Scientist at SRI International, is the project leader. Tracy Camp, ACM-W Co-Chair and Professor of Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines, is co-project investigator. The members of this team have extensive experience in studying issues pertaining to women in computing, are Ph.D. women computer scientists, and are fully committed to improving the status of women in computing.
The ACM's Committee on Women in Computing site is at:http://www.acm.org/women/
For more background on the gender gap problem, see: "The Incredible
Shrinking Pipeline," by Tracy Camp, at http://www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/cacm/paper.html See also: http://www.aauw.org/2000/ggpr.html
About The Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the largest and oldest international professional association of computer professionals. ACM is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership by delivering cutting-edge information and transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM, with its world-class journals and magazines, dynamic special Interest groups, numerous conferences, workshops and forums, is a primary resource to the IT field. For additional information on ACM, visit the web site at http://www.acm.org |
