House of Eratosthenes

The gender gap in computer science may have been widened by Star Trek, a new study suggests — but it could be bridged with a less geeky image.

New research published in the December Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that the stereotype of computer scientists as unwashed nerds may be partially responsible for the dearth of women in the field, as shown by National Science Foundation statistics.

“What this research shows is that the image of computer science — this geeky, masculine image — can make women feel like they don’t belong,” says lead author Sapna Cheryan of the University of Washington.

“I think this is an important contribution to the literature,” says Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton of the University of California, Berkeley. He says it raises questions about how much conscious control people have over their choices.

Previous research has found that a person can get a good sense of what another individual is like just from spending a few minutes perusing that person’s bedroom. Cheryan wondered if the same was true of classrooms.

“You can get a message about whether you want to join a certain group just by seeing the physical environment that that group is associated with,” Cheryan says. “You walk in, see these objects and think, ‘This is not me.’”

Cheryan and colleagues tested this idea by alternately decorating a computer science classroom with objects that earlier surveys pegged as stereotypically geeky—Star Trek posters, videogames and comic books — or with objects that the surveys found to be neutral— coffee mugs, plants and art posters. Thirty-nine college students spent a few minutes in the room, then filled out a questionnaire on their attitudes toward computer science.

Women who spent time in the geeky room reported less interest in computer science than women who saw the neutral room. For male students, however, the room’s décor made no difference.

This would explain why on all of the shows on WB Network — let me repeat that, all of the shows — you find a male character from there, and the dude doesn’t act like a “real” dude, knowwhatimean? The wounded-puppy look; immaculately tweezed eyebrows that could hold up book collections. A twenty-something face that has never known stubble (unless it’s in the script), or for that matter pressure under a deadline. He’s only concerned about one thing, ever, and that is whatever concerns her. He is only masculine in the ways a girl would find non-threatening — if she’s about twelve — and therefore, he isn’t very masculine at all.

It all makes sense. Everything has to fit someone’s image of “female-friendly,” and if it doesn’t then whoever created it is widening a gender gap. Better knock it off now.

This is such a colossal mistake; females are more resilient than this. Aren’t they? Or do I have it wrong? All of them, young and old, need to see plaid and paisley everywhere they look?

Wouldn’t it be funny if these asshats set out to make an “experiment” that would prove the opposite — that men are influenced by a room’s decor just as much as, or more than, their female counterparts. The data got in the way, so they found a different spin to put on it so they could still get their grant money.

Suppose we turn the world upside-down and make the technical fields bright purple and pink so they are pleasing to women who demand this. Make it all appealing…just barely long enough for them to pass a point of commitment. And then they find out, it’s greasy nerds, it’s some other more humble line of work to which they did not dedicate themselves to the necessary training, or it’s waiting for a sugar-daddy. Who’s that help? Really, I wanna know.

And I haven’t even mentioned the other people like me, who consider it a colossal headache when they have to work with someone, man or woman, who never should have entered the field in the first place. That is no picnic. Someday I must jot down all the reasons why that sucks so much. For now, I’ll just comment that it sucks for them just as much as it sucks for everybody else.

I know they’re just trying to be politically correct, but this really isn’t very helpful to anyone.

Perhaps is something a bit more simple than that? Perhaps it has something to do with the differences between men and women?

http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science

No, it couldn’t possibly be like that now could it?

(Honestly now, many women do you know that enjoys sitting in front of a computer for 18 hours a day learning about how they work just for fun? Most women are just not built that way no matter how much we wish for it.)
- pdwalker | 12/17/2009 @ 21:41
“What this research shows is that the image of computer science — this geeky, masculine image — can make women feel like they don’t belong,” says lead author Sapna Cheryan of the University of Washington.

Oh, for the love of…

Didn’t the tech world leave this stereotype behind at least ten years ago? Yes, there was a time when computer people were mostly pimply-faced, braces-wearing, socially-inept nerds, tapping away late at night on DOS or UNIX terminals in the darkness of a basement, or hidden away in the warrens of a computer lab. They were dialing in to BBSs, they searched the Internet with Archie and Gopher, and periodically Telnet’ed into the university’s mainframe.

Those days are long gone. Today we have things like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Eight-year-old girls are posting updates on the minutae of their lives , as are 75-year old men, and everyone in between. Often from a netbook connect via Wi-Fi at Starbucks, or at the park via the cellular company’s signal. Pretty much everyone uses a point-and-click GUI of some kind. You don’t have to boot up with a floppy disk any more – you turn the thing on and it works.

I can’t believe anyone’s still writing articles like this, or that Star Trek would have anything whatever to do with it either. Geesh, did nobody watch the other four series which came after the original? There were plenty of women doing geeky and nerdy things.
- cylarz | 12/17/2009 @ 21:44
There were plenty of women doing geeky and nerdy things.

Yeah, more than in real life, I would add.

Faculty profile page.
- mkfreeberg | 12/17/2009 @ 21:51
I have a big enough problem with the biased turds behind the study in the first place. The ones who have decided that we can all just agree that “coffee mugs, plants and art posters” are neutral. Take out the coffee mugs, and that room screams chick, chick, chick.

Big effing surprise: they had an agenda, and built a study to prove it right. Wow, that NEVER happens.
- Andy | 12/18/2009 @ 10:14
Women aren’t interested in computer science? The best SysAdmin-cum-DBA-cum-supervisor that ever worked for me was named Lorraine. I do not exaggerate a whit when I say “best.” Not by a long shot. But then again, I was only in the biz for 16 years and left seven years ago. I also worked with and for many more than a few female engineers/managers during my time and all were competent, some were brilliant. So: I call bullshit, too. To paraphrase our friend at the WSJ: “What would we do without studies?”
- bpenni | 12/18/2009 @ 12:53
This is what gets me so pig-bitin’ mad. Lorraine might very well have expressed some interest if & when a co-worker showed up to hawk some Mary Kay inventory, and done some bits to maintain the girly-girl side of her existence. But even granting that…would it really have mattered worth a hill of beans to a talented female DBA or net eng or sys eng or soft eng, if the college instruction room was done-over with some lavender wallpaper? Doubtful. If a few pastry wrappers spilling out of an overfilled wastebaskets are enough to make you “feel like you don’t belong,” you probably don’t belong, and all the gender dynamics in play amount to nothing more than a convenient side-issue.
- mkfreeberg | 12/18/2009 @ 13:02

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Girls Don’t Do Computer Science and It’s Star Trek’s FaultThursday, December 17th, 2009

Girls Don’t Do Computer Science and It’s Star Trek’s Fault
Thursday, December 17th, 2009