It’s not that they aren’t interested; it’s the culture of these fields and how they exclude women and girls
Only 20 percent of computer science and 22 percent of engineering undergraduate degrees in the U.S. go to women. Women are missing out on flexible, lucrative and high-status careers. Society is also missing out on the potential contributions they would make to these fields, such as designing smartphone conversational agents that suggest help not only for heart attack symptoms but also for indicators of domestic violence.
In a paper we recently published, we found that young children and adolescents in the U.S., like adults, believe that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering. Girls who strongly endorse these stereotypes show the lowest interest in computer science and engineering. How do these gender stereotypes become self-fulfilling prophecies in this way?
A more complete explanation for girls’ and women’s lower interest entails highlighting societal and structural influences, such as the male-oriented images and culture of these fields. The images that students have in their heads of computer science and engineering matter. When asked to describe computer scientists, American students often think of images like those from TV shows like Big Bang Theory and Silicon Valley.
Beyond students’ perceptions, the actual masculine culture of computer science and engineering also contributes to women’s underrepresentation. In our research, we document that computer science and engineering have “masculine defaults.” These are features that reward, or set as the standard, characteristics and behaviors commonly associated with being male. Examples include rewarding aggressiveness, overconfidence and self-promotion.
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