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How gender issues can influence studying computer science

- Current state and future steps -

Mirjana Ivanović, Zoran Putnik, Anja Šišarica, Zoran Budimac

University of Novi Sad, Serbia

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Ivanović, M., Putnik, Z., Budimac, Z.,  Šišarica, A., Bothe, K.:

“How Gender Issues Can Influence Studying Computer Science”,

1st International Conference on Computer Supported Education, Lisboa, Portugal, pp. 223-228, 2009.

Presentation in a nutshell

1. Observed that the number of female students in CS started to decrease at our Department

2. Wanted to understand why

3. Designed questionnaire

4. Collected results, draw nice pie charts, …

5. Reported on that here (Anja) and in Lisbon (Zoran) It all drawn significant attention (see later), but did

we really understand the problem? It turned out that we didn’t and we were forced to

GO TO 3, again

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Agenda Reminder on what we did earlier, why and how

Reminder of some of our results (some nice pie charts)

Reminder on previous conclusions

Something on the mentioned attention

What we wanted to do further

Why we cannot report on that this year

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1. Reminder (what, why, how)Exploring opinions of female undergraduate CS

students (Dept. of mathematics and informatics, Faculty of Science, Uni. of Novi sad) regarding:

General success rate Professional confidence, ambitions and interests Level of satisfaction with the choice of studies Attitudes and beliefs towards the gender issue

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1. Reminder (what, why, how) To understand why is it true:

Considerable lack of female students at universities worldwide, despite the supporting acts made by academic community

For example: in the period 1995-2004 only 20% of B.A. degrees in CS in the USA were awarded to women

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1. Reminder (what, why, how) Often discontinue studies Phenomenon of “the shrinking pipeline”: even

though young girls could be attracted by CS, the higher level of education, the smaller is the proportion of female students Consequence: inadequate involvement of women in IT

industry and research For instance: only 22% of the employees in the science

related fields are female

Serbia, and our Department, are facing the same problem

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Our example

Five years ago: 50-50 relationship between numbers of male and female students

Now 40% female / 60% male

Cycle Female Total number

Bachelor 40% 450

Master 33% 90

Doctor 20% 12

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Our example – contd.

Directions Female percentage

Theoretical Dropping

Business Constant

Teachers None!

No significant difference in grades in ‘technical’ courses between males and females.

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Causes (from literature)

Intimidation with the male dominated nature of a field

Absence of female role models Lack of respect towards female professionals

in the field Lack of confidence in the abilities of female

professionals Increasing number of PCs and boys bragging

about themselves

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Causes (from literature)

Social pressure not to study CS Fear of combination of work and family life in IT

sector being problematic Women are more attracted to applications that

benefit society than in programming itself, therefore, tend to lose interest when this aspiration is not satisfied

Like mathematics, not technical subjects Not “ambitious”, more commited and more loyal, like

secure positions…

Is this true (in our case)?

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1. Reminder (what, why, how) Field study / questionnaire June 2008, 116 undergraduate female

students of all CS directions present at our department

85% of all female students 20 questions; combined examination

techniques:1. Descriptive answers2. Multiple choice answers3. Responses given on a Likert scale of 1

(Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree)

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2. Reminder on some results

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Expression of personal ambitions regarding career

StatementMean value

Standard Deviation

Marks during studies are important to me.

3.66 1.05

I believe I am about to have a successful career.

4.31 0.78

I am worried about further course of my career after I complete my studies.

2.44 1.26

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Expression of attitude towards curriculum

StatementMean value

Standard Deviation

I am generally satisfied with my choice of studies.

4.27 0.86

I feel more comfortable with mathematical courses, rather than with CS courses.

2.87 1.59

Studies positively effected my intellectual development and interests.

4.29 0.95

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Expression of attitude towards the gender issue

StatementMean value

Standard Deviation

Professionally, I feel completely equal to my male colleagues.

4.37 0.91

Concern regarding the lack of women in IT is justified.

2.62 1.33

Stereotypes regarding women in IT do not manifest in real life.

4.04 1.21!

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What had the greatest influence on the choice of your studies?

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Is IT a suitable field for women?

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Is it possible to have both successful career and family life?

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Average success rates

June 2008Year / Average mark

6,00-7,00

7,00-8,00

8,00-9,00

9,00-10,00

Unknown

1st 11.11% 27.78% 33.33% 5.56% 22.22%

2nd - - 68.42% 31.58% -

3rd - 64.29% 35.71% - -

4th - 33.33% 44.44% 22.22% -

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Interest in taken courses1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year

The least preferred courses

Math. Logic and Algebra, Analysis, Financial Mathematics

Data Structures and Algorithms, Math. Logic and Algebra, Analysis, Linear Algebra

Data Structures and Algorithms, Numerical Analysis

Differential Equations, Linear Algebra

The most preferred courses

Web design, Introduction to E-business, Data Structures and Algorithms, Introduction to Programming

Computer Organization, Object-Oriented Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms, Web Design, Data Bases

Data Bases, Web Design, E-learning, Information systems

Data Bases, Information Systems, Object-Oriented Programming

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How do you imagine your job position 10 years from now?

Lack of ambition?

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3. Reminder on previous conclusions Surprisingly high level of self-awareness and

confidence

Participants expressed serious and ambitious attitudes regarding their career objectives, feeling professionally equal to their male colleagues, with their marks to prove those claims

Present satisfaction with the choice of studies

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Conclusion - our view

Even though the number of female students at our department is dropping each year, those who manage to complete their studies, prove to be as competitive and skillful as their male peers

Technical skills are (after all) gender-blind?

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Conclusions – what we achieved At least, we now know our female students better than

before First step in understanding the problem (→ predict?,

control?) We did not confirm that the general beliefs are true

‘hate’ mathematics, competent in technical courses, high grades, feel good about themselves and studies, do not see any problems…

We did confirm: Lack of ambition

We (still) do not know why the number of female students is dropping

→ new questionnaire, → high-schools, → male students, → all cycles, → some inferential statistics

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4. On mentioned attention

During meeting of project coordinators (Berlin, May 2009):

Besides:

“→ new questionnaire, → high-schools, → male students, → all cycles, → some inferential statistics”,

Do also:

→ region, → Germany

Invitation to give presentation

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4. …

Invitation to give presentation

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4. … Questions and suggestions arise at EWM

Exploring opinions of female in secondary schools √ Exploring opinions of male in secondary schools and at

faculty level √

Make joint research (colleagues from Varaždin, Croatia offered cooperation) and compare results with other environments in region √

[Editor-in-Chief of Journal “Informatics in Education” invited us to submit extended version of paper in her journal]

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5. What we wanted to do further We designed a new questionnaire

More specific questions added (to help us to see / clarify correlations)

Males included All three cycles included

Klaus sent a number of links from their Dept. dealing with the issue of ‘women in informatics’

Sent the questionnaire to all partners of DAAD project

6. Why we cannot report on that today? Because no one sent us the filled questionnaires

, except Us (130) Ivan Luković (7) Albania (?)

We shall wait for the beginning of the new semester.

If nothing new happens, we shall change the research question and continue

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Questions Why do we care at all about percentage of

female students in CS?

Why shouldn’t we? Everyone else cares, so we should care as well. There is no hard evidence that CS should be a

male dominated field → we should ask ourselves what is happening

There are studies that prove that overall performance of the group is better if female/male percentage in the group is balanced.