Toward improving female retention in the computer science major

A lthough many computer professionals believe that inherent or deeply ingrained gender differences make women less suited to the study and practice of computer science [5, 9], the results reported here demonstrate that female underrepresentation in computer science could be avoided. Women can and do succeed in computer science (CS) when conditions do not deter them. The variation that occurs in women's participation rates demonstrates that many women succeed as computer scientists in certain times and settings. Conditions affecting female retention in undergraduate computer science are identified in this article. 1 Evidence that women's success in computer science varies over time was provided in an article by Camp that appeared in Communications in 1997 [2]. In this article, Camp documented the rise and fall in the female proportion of computer science Bachelor's degrees between 1981 and 1994. Camp also noted that this variation was affected by the type of college (engineering/nonengineering) in which a CS department was located. Figure 1 expands Cam-p's timeframe to the most recent available data and reconfirms that women's proportion of CS Bache-lor's degrees waxes and wanes. As Figure 1 shows, women comprised 14% of CS Bachelor's degrees in the U.S. in 1971; this percentage rose to 37% by 1984, and then dropped 10 percentage points over the subsequent 13 years. These temporal changes in female representation are not statistical phantoms that can be easily explained away. In particular, they are not attributable to general trends in female educational attain-ment—women's proportion of all Bachelor's degrees rose steadily from 46% to 56% during this period. Furthermore, women's proportion of non-CS scientific and technical disciplines also rose during this period [7]. The temporal changes in female representation were also not attributable to the effects of newly formed CS departments—a similar rising and What causes women to discontinue pursuing the undergraduate computer science major at higher rates than men? Toward Improving Fem the Computer Sc 1 In the U.S., 69% of the female college entrants who intended to major in computer science in 1987 switched to some other major by 1991 [10]. This female switching rate compares very unfavorably with the male switching rate of 46%.