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The approach Harvey Mudd took to get more women into Computer Science could (and should) probably be applied across all STEM fields, and to all student types.

The approach Harvey Mudd took to get more women into Computer Science could (and should) probably be applied across all STEM fields, and to all student types. https://qz.com/730290/harvey-mudd-college-took-on-gender-bias-and-now-more-than-half-its-computer-science-majors-are-women/ https://qz.com/730290/harvey-mudd-college-took-on-gender-bia... The overhaul of the computer science curriculum to make it more inclusive began the year before Klawe arrived from Princeton, where she was the dean of engineering. The school had redesigned its introductory course, required for all first-year students, to emphasize practical uses for programming and team based-projects, and switched from the Java programming language to Python, which more closely mimics the way humans communicate. The course is broken into three tracks, including one for students with no programming background. To make everyone feel at ease, professors urge know-it-all students who always have their hand in the air to talk during office hours, instead of in class.”Too often, people with experience are taking up all the air time,” Klawe says. As a result of the changes, women who take the introductory course are more likely to leave with a positive impression of programming, and often sign up for the second class in the sequence. Many go on to internships or research projects in the field after their first year, and by then, they’re hooked.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago
>Many go on to internships or research projects in the field after their first year, and by then, they’re hooked. // Are these the same people who are leaving the industry after a few years? Seems like if you hoodwink people in to something that's not really their vocation then that's the sort of effect you'd expect?
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  If they are going on to internships and research projects, it is likely they have discovered their vocation, just a few years late. Perhaps the hoodwinking is that it creates a false perception that the workplace which is ~85% male will be as welcoming as the educational environment, which for Harvey Mudd is 50/50. This HBR report is pretty brutal and eye opening on how women engineers are treated in the workplace. Not so much blatant rude sexual discrimination (though there some of that), but persistent pernicious subtle degradation and diminution. https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engineering-leave-the-field https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engin... We found that these work sites echoed the gender stereotyping experienced in school projects: men were assigned interesting problem-solving tasks where they could develop their analytic and technical skills, while women were often assigned jobs sorting papers, copying, collecting equipment, writing notes, and coordinating—tasks they felt did not value or cultivate their skills. This second round of gender stereotyping in the workplace, coupled with unchallenging projects, blatant sexual harassment, and greater isolation from supportive networks, leads many female students to revisit their ambitions.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  I don't think people really have "vocations" built-in at some biological or personal level. Lots of people train for one thing, retrain for another, and work in a third.
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    I've the feeling it's more common to move industries nowadays but some stats that show "lots" of people move between sectors would be good support for your assertion. Anyone know of pertinent info?
TwiztidK 10y ago
> professors urge know-it-all students who always have their hand in the air to talk during office hours This was unbelievably annoying when I was in school, since the questions those kids asked were always completely off-topic and added nothing to the class. I didn't major in CS so I only took a few classes in that department, but I almost never noticed the same behavior in any other subject despite it being a daily occurrence in my CS classes (until around 3rd year courses).
candiodari 10y ago
This just sounds like it's drastically lowering the difficulty because then people don't quit so easily. And I'm sure that's true ... but makes the situation worse by making it hard for even people who would make the higher difficulty level to find the knowledge in the first place.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago

>Many go on to internships or research projects in the field after their first year, and by then, they’re hooked. // Are these the same people who are leaving the industry after a few years? Seems like if you hoodwink people in to something that's not really their vocation then that's the sort of effect you'd expect?

WillPostForFood 10y ago
If they are going on to internships and research projects, it is likely they have discovered their vocation, just a few years late. Perhaps the hoodwinking is that it creates a false perception that the workplace which is ~85% male will be as welcoming as the educational environment, which for Harvey Mudd is 50/50. This HBR report is pretty brutal and eye opening on how women engineers are treated in the workplace. Not so much blatant rude sexual discrimination (though there some of that), but persistent pernicious subtle degradation and diminution. https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engineering-leave-the-field https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engin... We found that these work sites echoed the gender stereotyping experienced in school projects: men were assigned interesting problem-solving tasks where they could develop their analytic and technical skills, while women were often assigned jobs sorting papers, copying, collecting equipment, writing notes, and coordinating—tasks they felt did not value or cultivate their skills. This second round of gender stereotyping in the workplace, coupled with unchallenging projects, blatant sexual harassment, and greater isolation from supportive networks, leads many female students to revisit their ambitions.
eli_gottlieb 10y ago
I don't think people really have "vocations" built-in at some biological or personal level. Lots of people train for one thing, retrain for another, and work in a third.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  I've the feeling it's more common to move industries nowadays but some stats that show "lots" of people move between sectors would be good support for your assertion. Anyone know of pertinent info?

TwiztidK 10y ago

> professors urge know-it-all students who always have their hand in the air to talk during office hours This was unbelievably annoying when I was in school, since the questions those kids asked were always completely off-topic and added nothing to the class. I didn't major in CS so I only took a few classes in that department, but I almost never noticed the same behavior in any other subject despite it being a daily occurrence in my CS classes (until around 3rd year courses).

candiodari 10y ago

This just sounds like it's drastically lowering the difficulty because then people don't quit so easily. And I'm sure that's true ... but makes the situation worse by making it hard for even people who would make the higher difficulty level to find the knowledge in the first place.