Article written by Brenda Cantwell Wilson, Department of Computer Science & Information Systems, Murray State University, published in Computer Science Education, 2002, vol 12, No 1-2, pp. 141-164.
The number of women completing bachelor’s degrees in general have increased, but the bachelor’s level for women in computer science is reduced. Study examines factors of success in introductory computer science course and determines which factors who might affect the gender gap.
Identification of two main problems: Recruiting and keeping females in computer science programs.
Recruiting: Why is the numbers of females who enroll in computer science programs so low? Lack of ability or lack of support and encouragement? Increasing evidence say that it is not lack of ability. Studies carried out on differences in math and spatial achievement scores found sex differences only in schools where also there were significant sex-differences in the students self-perception on their ability to learn mathematics. When students in junior and senior high was given the Raven Progressive Matrices, a test designed to be free of verbal and cultural bias, there were no gender difference in the performance.
The low recruitment has to do with recruitment factors such as lack of role models and encouragement, gender stereotyping, lack of self-esteem among females. There are four social factors that can explain the low level of females in computer science courses:
- parental encouragement directed towards sons rather than daughters
- boy and girl peer groups widening the gap
- stereotyped game software
- lack of female role models both in the classroom and in the media
Research indicates that there are significant differences between males and females in their experience with and attitudes toward computers. In a study carried out in 1992 one found that males had both more experience and better skills than females in specific computer usage, particularly programming and gaming.
Women also have less pre-college computing experience than men. One of the best indicators of success in a college computer science course was having a high school programming course using structured methodology. Application experience only did not prove to be an indicator of success in computer science courses in college. For females, any type of prior computing experience was significant in success in computer science classes in college, and only specific types of computing experience were significant for males. A study of women in introductory courses in New Zealand found that “students are intimidated by seeing other students who have prior programming experience completing the assignments very quickly”.
Women find environment and culture in computer science activities to be hostile. One reason could be that women prefer activities where social interaction is encouraged. Females prefer to avoid assessments done on a competitive basis. Girls and women do not like the encouragement of “highly focused, almost obsessive behavior.” Women also have few role models. Female students may feel isolated.
Attribution theory states that explanations for success and failures can be given in a stable nature or an unstable nature. If explanations due to success are to unstable causes and failures to stable causes we have a low probability of persistence. Successful students’ intention to continue in science was directly related to their attribution to ability and inversely related to task ease. Several studies have suggested that females tend to attribute their successes in computer science to luck and failures to lack of ability.
