DAC 2005 - Changing attitudes toward women and minority students in computer science
Margolis started out by describing her background as mainly in education, but observed that in 1970 she was one of the first women phone installers in San Francisco. She learned three important lessons about technology and gender classifications at the phone company. The first lesson was that even with no experience, she had the capability of learning a new job. Second, the men in the installer positions were gradually being displaced by entering women, so the prestige of the position declined. The men moved on to other jobs such as splicers, which was considered more appropriate for men than women. Third, she learned through the process about the limitations of working by yourself versus working in a group. These experiences eventually led her to her research in gender specificity in jobs, with her research focusing on women and computers. In 1970, Carnegie Mellon University had and enrollment of approximately 7 percent women in their computer science courses. (Today, in comparison, women students account for up to 25 percent of the computer science majors in the U.S.) The study at CMU In 1994, Margolis started a four-year research program interviewing students at CMU. One finding from her study lead to interventions at the school and from the faculty aimed at breaking the stereotypes involved in recruiting new students. In her research, Margolis found that men were allowed to be computer geeks, talking about and working with computers 24x7. Both the men and women in the program agreed with the validity of the stereotype, although the men individually insisted they themselves were not stereotypical. In general, women had less hardware knowledge and less programming and hands-on experience, leading to unrealistic expectations and a sense of inability on their part to fit the 24x7 geek model. This perceived lack in the women affected their confidence and sense of belonging, leading to a fairly high attrition rate for women in the computer science program - even for high-achieving women students. Over time however, the underlying motivation for 44 percent of these women to remain associated with computers in some larger sense, led them to tie computers into other disciplines - computing in a social context. Margolis did note that over time, the underlying motivation that had brought women students into CS - for 44 percent of these women, they remained associated with computers in some larger sense, tying computers into other disciplines - computing in a social context. Most of the women who dropped out of the CMU CS program were asking themselves, "Do I really belong?" This reduction in confidence resulted in a reduction of interest in the program. At the time, the faculty viewed these dropouts as "appropriate switchers", bright people who didn't belong. The faculty in general felt it was good for these people to find a better fit for their interests and talents. While investigating these faculty attitudes, Margolis discovered that poor teaching and subliminal attitudes affected women and minority students much, much more than male students. Due to these findings, Margolis suggested some changes to the school. CMU accepted her recommendations and began a series of interventions to change the teachers' attitudes and teaching practices towards women and minorities. CMU also made changes in the admissions criteria to de-emphasize hardware and programming experience - two factors which favored the male applicants. Finally, CMU began to emphasize to faculty, councilors, and admissions staff that the level of competence became equal between men and women after two years of university education. As a result of these changes, over the 4 years of the study, the population of women in the computer science program at CMU went from 7 percent to 42 percent. The study and resulting changes addressed the computer sciences education issues and demonstrated a need for training in the dominant cultures to effect changes in the institution. Other populations After the CMU study, Margolis looked into the issue of race, specifically African- American and Latino populations in computer science. Nationwide, only 7percent African- American and Latino people study computer science. This paucity of minority computer science students in college illuminates a need to address minority students before college. Her current research is in the Los Angeles public-school system where 75 percent of the students are Latino and 8 percent are African-American. In the high-school computer science programs, only 6 percent of the students are Latino or African-American, and an additional 16 percent of all the computer science students are female. At this point, the research has found that computer literacy does not lead to capabilities in computer science. Minority families have resource limitations, so a computer is a rare and precious item in the house. In comparison, white and Asian families tend to have multiple computers, so the boys are not inhibited from developing extensive hardware and software knowledge and experience prior to college. Unfortunately Margolis noted, the public schools are becoming technology rich, but curriculum poor. Once again, the stereotype of the geek male limits access to computers and computer programming courses to white and Asian males to the exclusion of other minorities and women. Therefore Margolis concluded, intense interventions are necessary to expand access and capabilities beyond the limitations of the assumptions and stereotypes. Finally, Margolis started talking about social changes. She noted that society now expects continuous learning and constant change. Overall, everything moves at a fast pace which raises very troubling questions. What are the drivers for society and what are the drivers and inhibitors for change? The fast pace and high rate of change causes society to become inconsiderate and impatient. At the same time, both industry and society need to accept and encourage diversity. The pace of change also raises the issue of technology development versus the rate of adoption of new technologies. Ultimately, the issues of gender and race must be reconciled with those of technology development and adoption. ******************************** June 24, 2005 Tets Maniwa can be reached at maniwa_at_sbcglobal.net
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