1. They're nerds
2. They play games regularly
3. They're male
The article What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science blames the first two points as the main repellents of women to the field. It's safe to safe that, generally speaking, women care about their appearance more than men (see shoes, clothes, makeup, etc.). Being labeled a "nerd" or "geek" may be something females fear more than males do. In society's beliefs, intelligence has an inverse relationship with attractiveness. Shows like Beauty and the Geek or Big Bang Theory support this with roles their characters play. When video game aficionados began flooding the field in the 80's, this only strengthened the social pressures from outsiders. 25 years ago, the ratio of men to women in CS classes was about 50:50. Now women represent less than 10%.
My invitation to all women is that if you have an interest or love for computer science, go for it! Once you get into college, social labels like "nerd" and "geek" don't matter anymore. If you decide not to pursue a career in CS, let it be because you discover it's really not your passion. Don't let outside forces affect you who are or what you can become.
And to my fellow male nerds, be nice to the ladies.
Reading some articles about this, I think BYU must have an even lower percentage of women in the CS field than other universities. Since many people are at BYU to get married, does that mean CS guys don't make good partners? I wonder if the quality of men in CS negatively affects the number of women in the department. Maybe we should step it up?
ReplyDeletethough the funny thing is, if they really were here to get married they should go to a major dominated by the opposite gender (women should do electrical engineering or CS, while guys should do nursing or elementary education). They would appear cooler to the people in those majors and would probably get more dates as the people in those majors are starved of interaction with the opposite gender.
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