What do you say?: open letters to women considering a computer science major

I n the last decade we have both monitored with great interest the ratio of female to male computer science majors at our respective institutions. With each entering class, we think: "Surely, now is the time when the numbers will become more balanced." Logic tells us that this must eventually happen, because the opportunities in computing are simply too attractive for an entire segment of our population to routinely pass up. But each year we are again disappointed in the number of women students, as they continue to be woefully underrepresented among computer science maj ors. So, what do you say to a young woman who is considering a college choice and a choice of major in order to make computer science a more attractive option? We have organized some thoughts on that subject into the open letters that follow. We each imagined a high school junior making the college/major decision, which was not very difficult since we both have daughters (some closer to college age than others!). Though we each addressed a single person, we kept a wider group in mind-one that we presume has a common set of objectives, desires, and fears. The first letter emphasizes the positive aspects of studying computer science, while the second attempts to address some of the common concerns and misconceptions about the major. Though we come to the task from different perspectives female vs. male, large institution vs. small we found that our common goal minimizes the effect of these differences. If you are a professor or an administrator also interested in this problem, we hope that you will find the letters usefill, regardless of your own perspective. If you are a student to whom these letters apply, we hope that you will find them persuasive. Kevin and Jane