mwolf@yale-com.UUCP (Anne G. Wolf) (09/23/83)
What do you personally perceive is the proportion of women to men in
computer science? On what do you base your opinion?
Between 1% and 20%, depending on where you are and on how much skill
one needs to be considered "in computer science". (Is a secretary
using a word-processor "in computer science"? I think this is a
vague question.) I base this opinion on what I have seen in classes
and during various jobs.
Are women interested in different areas of c.s. than men? How so?
Are women's roles in c.s. different than men's? How?
Generally women are into more software than hardware, as compared with men.
Generally women are into more documentation and user-interactive programs
than operating-systems and device-drivers, as compared with men.
Generally women are into more useful programs than "neat hacks", as
compared with men. There are MANY MANY MANY exceptions to these
generalizations.
Why do women enter c.s.?
I got into c.s. because I wanted to write A.I. programs and to make
computers more accessible to people who weren't programmers.
(I had the latter idea in 1979, before "user-friendliness" was as
fashionable as it is now.) I also knew I could get jobs in c.s. easily.
I don't one can generalize about all women.
Do women become interested in computer science at a later age than men?
Depends on the woman, I started in Junior High, as did most of the
professional programmers that I have met.
There are plenty of people of both sexes who take a college course
or 2 in c.s. without having used computers before college,
although I have not met many who continue doing things in c.s.
after they finish the courses. This does not seem to differ much
for women than for men.
Are women's career opportunities in c.s. different than men's?
Women's career opportunities may differ, not because they are
women, but more because of the kind of training they have had.
A woman who is not attractive will have a harder time getting
employed at anything than a man who is not attractive,
although this is probably less true in high-tech places than
elsewhere, because people are more concerned with products than
with the ways customers can be charmed by a beautiful employee.
A women is generally not permitted to be as aggressive as her
male counterparts without angering her immediate superior.
This may tend to cause women to be promoted more slowly.
This issue is not specific to Computer Science. (Wasn't there
something published at M.I.T. about this last Spring?)
Do women get negative responses from other women when they discuss their
work? I have gotten negative responses from people of both sexes when I
discuss computers. They usually come from people who know nothing
about computers and who don't want to know anything about computers.
The responses tend to be worse from men than from women, and worse
from older people than younger ones, although there are exceptions.
Is there a correlation between loving c.s. and playing D&D?
There are many people who love computers and don't play D&D.
There are many people who play D&D and don't love computers.
I would not say that there is a direct correlation between
D&D and computer-loving. I DO say that a computer is a great
medium to arrange games or to store character-descriptions etc.,
so people who play D&D and love computers tend to combine the two.
How about video games?
There is a slight correlation between loving video-games and
loving computers, because computer-programming allows you to
write your own game and to appreciate a well-made game.