The Way We Teach Computing Hurts Women

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2014

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Up until the mid 1980s, women flocked to computer science in droves. Then they dwindled away like the dinosaurs. Now, only about 12 percent of computer science majors are women and they hold just one in four "computer workers."*

It's bad, but not bleak.

We bring you tales of success from technology's gender gap on this week’s New Tech City from the president of a college that quadrupled its female CS majors to a woman whose invisible friend named Ruby helps her code. You see, girls are attracted to what you can do with computer programming and the stories the code can tell. But that's not what most classes have taught.

We bring you the story of the shift. Plus, inspiration from the first computer programmer ever, who just happened to be a woman and the daughter of a very famous literary figure.

Solutions, stories, and why rolling back tech's gender gap could make all the difference to the future of the U.S. economy. Yes, it's that big of a deal.

*A previous version of this post stated the incorrect percentage.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friend, this is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New
0:05.8	Tech City.
0:07.2	Same good content, just the old name.
0:09.6	Enjoy.
0:11.6	I'm Anouche Zamorote, host of New Tech City, and this week we've got the answer to a
0:17.7	big problem, a few answers, to get more women into technology.
0:24.4	There are interesting, sometimes strange, sometimes kind of obvious solutions happening
0:30.7	right now, waiting to be spread far and wide.
0:35.0	Something very personal needs to happen.
0:36.7	We have success stories about how to get women to walk through the door of a computer science
0:42.1	class and then stay.
0:44.2	Literally overnight, that course became the most favorite required course in the first
0:50.0	semester.
0:51.4	Change is coming to some computer science classes.
0:54.6	Coming in the name of gender equality, but also in the name of keeping the US economy
0:59.7	growing.
1:00.7	Yes, gender equality in computer science is that big a deal.
1:05.2	The fact that they don't offer computer science here at high school level, I thought that
1:09.0	was really disappointing.
1:11.1	Get ready to meet some women with some very specific, sometimes unusual ideas that could
1:15.9	change how we think about computer science and women.
1:23.0	Let's start here.
	...

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