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’s bachelor’s degrees in the United States. It had become one of the least gender-balanced fields in American society, especially in 2003, when the percentage of women receiving the bachelor’s degrees was only about 28 percent. On the other hand, the men’s figure in receiving bachelor’s degrees had gone up from approximately 63 to 72 percent. This figure shows that the gender gap in getting bachelor’s degrees in computer science is getting wider, and we can think that popularity of computer science as a career or a field 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 computer science.
In the case of doctorate degrees, the number of men who were granted doctorates 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 doctorates has increased steadily on the whole.
The gender gap in
the undergraduate field is getting wider and wider. It
seems that obstacles to women’s participation in the field of computer
science seem to stem from something
inherent in the field. Computer game is introduced to boys at a young age,
while most girls are not interested in
computer games. As children grow, the computer industry consists of
male-targeted computer games. Eventually, most men pursue computer science because
they are familiar with computers since they were a child, while most women don’t become interested in the field of
computer science.
Clearly there will be a tendency toward male-dominance in the field. But the above graph shows that the gender gap in getting degrees in computer science is getting narrower with the pursuit of a more advanced degree. In this case, while computer science is not an attractive field for women before pursuing an undergraduate degree, if women participate in the field of computer science, the interest of computer science would grow, narrowing the gender gap in getting degrees in computer science.
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.
The number of women receiving the bachelor’s degrees in computer science had been increasing at an exponential rate from 1970 to 1985. 1985 was the peak year where women received about 38 percent of the computer science bachelor’s degrees awarded in the United States, but in 2003, the figure was only about 28 percent. On the other hand the men’s figure receiving bachelor’s degrees in computer science has increased from approximately 63 to 72 percent. This figure shows that the amount of women receiving bachelor’s degrees in computer science is growing fewer and fewer. In addition, the gender gap getting bachelor’s degrees in computer science is getting wider.
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 increasing 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 above graph shows that the gender gap in getting degrees in computer science is getting narrower with the more advanced degree. This situation will continue in the future. The more women will be want to get higher degrees and the gender gap in getting degrees in computer science will be narrower than now.
