[net.women] Women in computing -- undergraduate registration problems

craig@dcl-cs.UUCP (Craig Wylie) (02/26/86)

Has anybody else noticed a sharp drop in the number of Women applying
to study CS ?

Here at the University of Lancaster the percentage is down to under 10%
(on a good day).

We are currently examining ways of rectifying this problem, any hints
from others would be most welcome.


Followup to net.followup as we only seem to receive this newsgroup when it
cross-posted.

Craig.

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rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson) (02/28/86)

In article <1028@dcl-cs.UUCP> craig@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Craig Wylie) writes:
>Has anybody else noticed a sharp drop in the number of Women applying
>to study CS ?
>
> <more, down to 10%, etc.>
>
>We are currently examining ways of rectifying this problem, any hints
>from others would be most welcome.

a) Has anybody tried to find out for what they ARE applying to study instead?
   That would seem to be a good indicator.

b) On a related note -- when I attended the University of Mississippi a few
   years ago, people (both sexes) were flooding into the CS school in their
   junior year; abandoning marketing and management majors right and left.
   Turns out that CS was a little tough for most of these people, who seemed
   to be strictly $$$-motivated (or should have been tough, but that is a
   sore subject best left unbroached here).  Anyway, I've heard rumors from
   various colleges across the U.S. that people are now turning away from
   the technical fields in droves to go back into the "classier" areas of
   business -- high-level management, banking & finance, brokerage, etc.
   Seems that the YUPPie craze has enforced the idea that the "in" professions
   are more along these lines, and that there is much more potential money
   and upward-mobility in these fields.
-- 

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