November 2007 — News

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Women Lose Ground in IT, Computer Science

by Dave Nagel

Women also received the minority of bachelor's degrees in electrical, electronics, and communications engineering (13 percent); aerospace engineering (18 percent); computer and information sciences (21 percent); physics (21 percent); civil engineering (22 percent); information science (28 percent); chemical engineering (36 percent); biomedical engineering (41 percent); and math (45 percent). Women received the majority of bachelor's degrees in chemistry (52 percent), biochemistry (55 percent), and biology (62 percent).

"The content of computing curriculum, especially introductory courses, is believed to contribute to the under-representation of women in IT," the report stated. "The challenge to educators is to develop engaging assignments and curricula that appeal to a variety of students with different learning styles, interests, socio-cultural backgrounds, and abilities, while maintaining the rigor of the discipline. Putting the concepts of computing in appealing contexts and building on existing competence can reduce the barriers of entry and level the playing field for those with limited experience."

The percentage of computer science bachelor's degrees awarded to women in 2006 represents a significant decline from 1983, in which women received 36 percent of those degrees awarded.

And what of advanced degrees? While the number of women receiving doctorates in computer and information sciences has grown, according to the report, so has the number of those degrees received by non-resident aliens. Of the doctoral degrees awarded to women in 2004, almost half (48 percent) went to non-resident aliens.

Women as Computer Science Faculty and IT Professionals
The picture seems to get worse as women climb the professional ladder in both academia and private industry. In the 2004/2005 school year, only 18 percent of new tenure-track faculty hires in computer science were women. (That's the same as 1995/1996, and the figures have fluctuated little over the course of those years, dipping to a low of 12 percent in 2000/2001.)

As for current professorships, 16 percent of computer science assistant professors are women (down from 20 percent in 1995/1996); 12 percent of associate professors (up from 10 percent in 1995/1996); and 10 percent of full professors (double the 1995/1996 figure).

Similarly, in the private sector, the report indicated, women are in the minority in technical and IT-related positions, and their participation shrinks even further at executive levels. In the United States workforce as a whole, women hold 56 percent of professional positions. But they hold only 27 percent of professional computing-related positions.

The present IT and computer science-related employment situation for women looks something like this: