4 ms·

I agree, Math and Physics are in many ways similar to CS, and yet have more women. And I can think of a pretty good reason to explain it: Math and Physics are m

I agree, Math and Physics are in many ways similar to CS, and yet have more women. And I can think of a pretty good reason to explain it: Math and Physics are more classically respected and authoritarian. CS is the wild-west by comparison. In Math and Physics in high school and college, you can just study what you're supposed to study, do the problems you're supposed to do. You can mostly do that in CS too, of course, but that's not ubiquitous. In CS you're programming, and when programming you're running into bugs and devising work-arounds. Some stuff does not work like it's supposed to. Sometimes the best implementation for a purpose is a clever but not-quite-correct shortcut that's way faster. Some of my CS classes had automated code submissions testing and grading systems, and some students managed to hack the system in novel ways, and were given full points for doing so. My experience in school is that the smartest girls studied a lot more, and the smartest guys messed around a lot more. CS is programming and programming is a lot of messing around. My dangerous 2c ;)

stcredzero 8y ago
I agree, Math and Physics are in many ways similar to CS, and yet have more women. I think it might be useful to ask: In what ways are Math and Physics are different from the programming field? I think the requirement to work together on larger projects is different. What is the gender distribution of physicists working at CERN? My experience in school is that the smartest girls studied a lot more, and the smartest guys messed around a lot more. Sounds about right. CS is programming and programming is a lot of messing around. Is it? Back in the day, there were CS professors who proudly declared they didn't like programming.
- ploxiln 8y ago
  Back in the day, there were a few more women in CS :) I still agree that CS being "less social" is a huge factor. But have to admit it seems like there's some other factors too, and I think the "less social" and "wild west" combo is pretty significant.
  - curtis 8y ago
    > Back in the day, there were a few more women in CS :) I actually think this is probably wrong. Back in the day there was a higher percentage of women in CS. It's possible that in absolute numbers there are as many women today in CS as there was then. That's because there's probably a lot more people in CS overall. I also think it's likely that back in the day most college-educated programmers had EE degrees, not CS degrees, so what you'd really want to look at is the percentage of women in CS and EE, not just in CS.
  - stcredzero 8y ago
    Back in the day, there were a few more women in CS :) The professor I was thinking of was a woman, actually.

stcredzero 8y ago

I agree, Math and Physics are in many ways similar to CS, and yet have more women. I think it might be useful to ask: In what ways are Math and Physics are different from the programming field? I think the requirement to work together on larger projects is different. What is the gender distribution of physicists working at CERN? My experience in school is that the smartest girls studied a lot more, and the smartest guys messed around a lot more. Sounds about right. CS is programming and programming is a lot of messing around. Is it? Back in the day, there were CS professors who proudly declared they didn't like programming.

ploxiln 8y ago
Back in the day, there were a few more women in CS :) I still agree that CS being "less social" is a huge factor. But have to admit it seems like there's some other factors too, and I think the "less social" and "wild west" combo is pretty significant.
- curtis 8y ago
  > Back in the day, there were a few more women in CS :) I actually think this is probably wrong. Back in the day there was a higher percentage of women in CS. It's possible that in absolute numbers there are as many women today in CS as there was then. That's because there's probably a lot more people in CS overall. I also think it's likely that back in the day most college-educated programmers had EE degrees, not CS degrees, so what you'd really want to look at is the percentage of women in CS and EE, not just in CS.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  Back in the day, there were a few more women in CS :) The professor I was thinking of was a woman, actually.