Too pretty to be a hax0r?
9:11 AM 3393 views, 1 comment
The gender gap in computer science is growing.
The proportion of women among bachelor's degree recipients in computer science peaked at 37 percent in 1985 but has fallen to about 28 percent in the last few years. That number is only 17 percent within research universities. (From the Globe article)
Overall, the number of new computer science majors in 2004 was 40 percent lower than in 2000.
I've always been convinced that as a whole, women just have different interests than men, so I'm rarely surprised to see a gender gap in any field. The main thing I'm concerned about here is the decline in the major. Are my skills about to be in more demand, or as outsourcing increases, are more perceptive women fleeing a doomed profession like rats from a sinking ship?
Then again, maybe women just don't have what it takes to make it in challenging technical fields.
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