Or so it would seem based on an interesting New York Times article published Sunday by Randall Stross titled: “What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?” (I got the same impression myself yesterday just roaming around MIT’s campus and seeing the huge male to female ratio in general).
The article points out that the percentage of women in other tech and science fields has actually been on the rise over the past two decades, making the shrinking proportion of women in computer science more puzzling. Efforts have been made, such as gearing video games for girls/women, to spark interest in computers among younger females, but such efforts haven’t worked. There’s still some thinking that the geek factor of computer science isa turnoff to many women. The article points out that women have entered fields such as Web design in big numbers, but also notes that this field in particular generally pays less than computer science.
