Many people in computer science wonder why only a small fraction of college and university computer science students are female, even though women make up a growing portion of computer and Internet users. Maybe there are many reasons. We can make clear the reasons through analyzing the gender gap in computer science,

In the early 1980s, computer science had one of the highest proportions of female undergraduates in science and engineering. And the number of women receiving the bachelor’s degrees in the field had been increasing at an exponential rate from 1970 to 1985. 1985 was the peak year where women received about 38 percent of the field bachelor’s degrees awarded in the United States. It had become one of the least gender-balanced fields in American society. But in 2003, the figure which women received the bachelor’s degrees was only about 28 percent. On the other hand the men’s figure receiving bachelor’s degrees in field has gone up from approximately 63 to 72 percent. This figure shows that the gender gap getting bachelor’s degrees in computer science is getting wider. And we can think that popularity of computer science has been decreasing for women.

On the other hand in the case of master’s degrees, it is different from bachelor’s degrees. The gender gap in getting degrees is narrower than the bachelor’s degree. The noticeable thing is that the amount of women granted master’s degrees has been rising at a linear rate until now. More and more women are getting their master’s degrees in the computer science.

In the case of doctorate degrees, the number of men who were granted the doctorates was rose exponentially from 1985 to 1995. But the women’s figure was completely different. Although the figure goes up and down, like the master’s degrees in computer science, the figure of women getting the doctorates has increased steadily on the whole.

The gender gap in undergraduate is wider and wider. The reason of it is that obstacles to women’s participation in the field of computer science seem to stem something inherent in the field. Computer game is introduced for boys. Unfortunately, it is expressly designed almost for boys. Most of girls don’t like it. As children grow, the computer industry which holds their attention consists of male-targeted computer games. Eventually most of men familiar with it from a child, But most of women don’t interested in the field of computer science.