Cynthia Lanius

If a report from a March 1997 Gallup Poll is correct, we may be making progress towards getting girls interested in computers. The survey found "relatively small differences between girls and boys in terms of their general orientation toward technology." The 13-17-year-old boys and girls surveyed reported equal levels of both computer usage and skills. The National Science Foundation published an Executive Summary of the poll's report conducted in conjunction with CNN, USA Today, and the National Science Foundation. Computers dominate practically every phase of the workplace, making it absolutely critical to get girls interested, competent, and capable in their use. However, there is a separate issue that the report does not confront - fewer women are entering the field of computer science. Between 1985 and 1995, women went from earning 36% of the computer science Bachelor's degrees to only 28%. A full report on these statistics was published by the National Science Foundation. Does the reported equality in male and female teens' computer use, if it exists, transfer to equality in computer science? With only 17% of Spring '97 Advanced Placement Computer Science test takers females (practically concurrent with the Gallup poll), clearly, a huge gender inequality still exists in computer science. (See complete data published by the College Board.) Increasing girls' computer use may be necessary to increase girls' interest in computer science, but it is not enough. After all, computer science isn't really about computers. Computer science (which really should be called computing science) is the study of computation; computers are merely the tool performing the computation. Saying you want to be a computer scientist because you love computers is like saying you want to be a writer because you really love word processors. Computer science is just that - a science, with problems, conjectures, explorations, tests, and solutions. Maybe this difference in computer use and computer science explains in part why so many students enter college as computer science majors and change majors after their first or second computer science course. Recently in scholarship committee interviews at Milby High School where I teach mathematics, several students indicated their intended major as computer science, yet had no computer science courses on their transcripts. When I asked them why they chose that major, they answered almost unanimously, "I really like computers." Many of these students were girls, and these girls like computers, again some evidence that perhaps we are making progress in girls' attitude towards computers. But what they mean when they say that they really like computers is that they like using applications, word processing, spread sheets. They like the internet, keyboarding, and games. One student told me recently that she likes pushing buttons and having words appear. It's good that these girls like computers; I doubt if they would even consider computer science if they didn't, but it is not enough. MIT commissioned an interesting study to determine why the percentage of their students choosing electrical engineering or computer science (EECS) (19% women) is lower than MIT engineering as a whole (29% women). The most telling result of the two student surveys was that women, much more so than men, felt less prepared to major in EECS than their peers. Read the MIT committee's recommendations for reducing the imbalance. Girls' failure to take Advanced Placement, the highest level of high school computer science courses, could contribute to the preparation issue. In last year's Gallup Poll, only a third of all students, male and female, felt their computer education in is on track to teach them all they need to know by the time they graduate from high school; the rest felt that their schools should be teaching them more. Who knows whether the Milby students will like computer science and become computer scientists. Will it dawn on them in their first computer science course late one night that this isn't what they expected it to be? What will they do when they're in a class of hackers that have already aced two advanced computer science courses in high school? Perhaps they will decide they like computer science, even love it the way these computer scientists from Rice University do. We are computer scientists. We wake up every morning in love with what we do. We love computer science because it exercises both our creative and our logical sides. Unfortunately, people often misconceive computer science as a dry and impersonal area requiring only technical skills. We would like to offer a contrary, insider's view of our field. Computer science is not only about logical thinking. It is true that computer systems (both hardware and software) work according to precise rules. However, these systems consist of many, many pieces; the challenge lies in building and combining them. Some of the pieces already exist, but it takes creativity to put them together. The pieces that don't exist must be designed, which requires innovation. Assembling the whole system needs teamwork. The process is as creative and human as writing poetry or composing music. But computer scientists also develop products that have an immediate, direct, positive impact on people and society, which is deeply gratifying. We feel that few other disciplines require the same, unique blend of creativity and insight with problem-solving skills. That's why we are computer scientists, and there's nothing else that we'd rather be. Shriram Krishnamurthi and Kathi Fisler Computer Science Rice University We must do a better job of getting all students ready for computer science. We can't look at a survey that claims girls' computer use equals boys' and think we've accomplished that goal. We must encourage girls to begin taking the highest levels of math, science, and computer science offered at their schools. And we must expect that women will become computer scientists, not expect that they won't. Links to Girls and Women in Technology