Saturday, October 17, 2009

How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? Hint: it doesn't.

I'm tired of people saying, "Oh, it's statistically proven that women are worse in math than men, so that's why there aren't more women in computer science."

My first degree is in mathematics. So I looked up the studies. I did the math. And it just didn't add up. Biology doesn't explain our gender gap.

I used to do this presentation on whatever paper was handy when someone tried to spout this misconception in my hearing. But I thought it might be more useful if I put it online, and I'm sure lots of other women from the Grace Hopper Celebration would like these slides to use and share.

So here it is. A quick presentation that explains why biology cannot explain the gender gap in computer science:



Like it? Hate it? Catch the Mathnet reference? Let me know.

The slides have also been posted to My personal blog and Geek Feminism... Feel free to pass them on!

4 comments:

Ed @ Cross-Country Beauty said...

I loved this slide deck! You're clever. :)

Anonymous said...

I loved the slide show, mainly because I am not a mathwhiz but am learning to code...and really like it! I dreaded my math classes through and saw no relationship to my computer language classes...if I need to know a formula, I just look it up on the 'net. Thanks for my chuckle for the day...

An IT major :)

rngrfreund said...

Awesome slide show! Thank you so much! I may be sending you an email in a bit to ask for permission to share this on our computer summer campwebpage.

Julie at iD said...

Loved the slide show. We just need to do away with this darn "computers are just for men" stereotype - I work for a computer camp and while almost half of the instructors are female, our campers are almost all male. Let's get the word out it's not about the math!