The beginning
of the
stereotypical
software
engineer.
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in the 1950’s
the use of computers
expanded beyond scientific
use and computing entered
the business world
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at first, the high demand
for computer personnel
left little room for sexual
discrimination in hiring
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hiring was hard:
there were
no formal training programs,
no certification programs,
no university programs
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but obstacles began to
stack up against women and
gender discrimination
appeared as a function of
historical accident
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aptitude tests
began to be widely used,
and they relied heavily
on mathematical
and logical skills
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personality tests
began to be widely used,
and they favored male traits
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the stereotype became self
perpetuating that people who
were good at programming
were anti-social, masculine,
and formally trained in
mathematics
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programmers
had to work at night
to get unlimited access
to the machines
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many company policies
did not allow women
on the premises at night
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government-subsidized
vocational programs
targeted women, but did not
provide proper training
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programmers were
given an unprecedented
amount of freedom, and
they encroached on the
domains of operational
managers
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managers critiqued
programming for being and
art and not yet a science
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at this time we also see the
start of the movement to
‘professionalize’ computing
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this partially means
distancing the
‘programmer’ from the low
status and gender
associations of the ‘coder’
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"It's just like planning a dinner. You have to
plan ahead and schedule everything so it's
ready when you need it. Programming
requires patience and the ability to handle
detail. Women are 'naturals' at computer
programming."
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once the precent was set,
the boy’s club self
perpetuated and carried
through to current day
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so how can we
change the future?
let’s look at some programs
that have worked.
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1995
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Carnegie Mellon University
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Jane Margolis is a social
scientist who studies
gender and education
Allan Fisher is the founding dean
of the CMU undergraduate
program in computer science
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they began a study at CMU
to understand the gender
imbalance
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over the period of 5 years
they interviewed 100
computer science students
of both genders
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part way through the study
they made some changes to
admission standards
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high GRE scores
+ emphasis on leadership
- prior programming experience
+ catch-up courses
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2006
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Maria Klawe
became president of
Harvey Mudd College
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introductory courses
split up
students with previous
experience
and students without
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first-year students
attend a giant conference
for women in computing
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there are women instructors
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nearly 20% more women
are earning computer science
degrees at Harvey Mudd than
before Maria Klawe became
president
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