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Introduction

How the Issue Arose
 -Is It a Problem?
 -History
 -The Role of Gender Bias
 -The Pipeline Effect

Is There Gender Bias?

Why is the Pipeline Shrinking?
 -Academia vs. Industry
 -Lack of Self-Confidence
 -Motivation
 -Parental Support
 -Personal Life, Family and Academia
 -Social Awkwardness
 -Subtle Bias
 -Support Networks

Conclusion &Recommendations

Interviews
 -Female Faculty
 -Female PhDs
 -Female Masters
 -Females Who Switched Out
 -Male faculty
 -Male PhDs
 -Male Masters
 -Males Who Switched Out

Sources

Males Masters Students

1. Do you have a spouse/kids?
Nope, I'm single with no kids

2. What is the occupational and/or education background of your parents?
My mother has an M.D. from the University of Kansas, and my father received his B.A in Creative Design from the same university. My mother is a radiologist, and my father is currently starting his own marketing company.

3. Were your parents supportive of your CS pursuit?
Yes, they were very supportive of my CS pursuit. However, they were very clear from the outset that they would be supportive about anything I chose to pursue.

4. What is your perceived % of women faculty in the Stanford Computer Science Department?
About 15%.

5. What is your perceived % of women graduate students, masters and PhDs, in the Stanford Computer Science Department?
Masters: about 15% PhD: about 8%

6. What is your perceived % of women in the computer science industry (technical positions)?
10% at most.

7. What motivated you to pursue CS?
Actually, I can pinpoint the exact moment when I become interested in computers. I've always been kind of a technical person & even as a little kid, I always wanted to know how things worked, why they worked, etc. I remember back in the late 80s, our house computer was acting up. Back then, I didn't even know what you could do on a computer besides using WordPerfect to type up some papers. This technician from my dad's office came over to fix it, and I just happened to be walking by when he took the cover off of the computer. I was instantly curious about all these cool electronic looking things inside, and this guy had the patience to let me sit there and ask him all these questions about everything. Pretty much since that day, I've been into computers.
As far as pursuing CS as an academic endeavor, I would say that everything just fits together. It's something that I enjoy anyways, and it's a respected field in which there's still opportunity for tremendous growth and research. Basically, the concept of being able to make a computer solve some complex problem or service is very enticing to me.

8. What challenges/struggles have you faced in your pursuit of computer science? We want specific instances.
Just the general stuff that I'm sure you would encounter in any endeavor – tediousness, difficulty, etc. Nothing gender specific, though.

9. Through the whole process, do you perceive graduate school to be easier for males or females?
Once a person is in graduate school, I don't perceive any difference in difficulty. I don't think that there is any difference in getting into graduate school, either. Yes, there are a lot fewer female applicants, but I really don't get the sense that they would get any special treatment. I think that the ratio of men and women in graduate school pretty much reflects the ratio of applicants.

10. Why do you think there are more males than females among the Stanford Computer Science faculty? Or, what do you think keep women out?
I don't think there's anything specific to the Stanford CS faculty – it's just a reflection of the general proportion of women to men in engineering, CS specifically. There are many reasons, which I believe and hope are now in the past, that have kept women out – the idea that it's the man who works, the woman who stays home, etc. Nowadays, I think it's primarily the fact that the field is so heavily male-dominated which keeps women out. When a woman is choosing a field of study, the current proportion is what turns them away, so it's kind of a self-feeding cycle.

11. How do you feel about shortage of women faculty in CS?
This is a difficult question. The use of the term "shortage" implies that it is a problem – which I'm not entirely convinced is the case. If there are women who would like to be involved in computer science, but aren't because of gender discrimination or some variant thereof, then yet, it is a problem, and it needs to be fixed. But I don't think that that is the case. It seems that the current argument today extends much deeper, and is therefore much more difficult to answer, and it usually goes something like "are we conditioning women from a very early age to not like engineering, and are therefore guiding them artificially along a different career path, even if it's not intentional." I have no idea how to approach this issue, or whether or not it's even solvable.

You start asking questions which are hard to get a grasp on. Is it wrong to wrap baby boys in blue blankets, and baby girls in pink blankets? Is it wrong to buy a young girl dolls to play with, and to buy a young boy G.I. Joe or Transformers? Is the fact that on average on the SAT, girls score better on the Verbal section than boys and boys score better on the Math section than girls an indication of the innate differences between men and women, or is it a reflection of societal conditioning? Or is the "fact" of this verbal/math scoring ratio even true, or is it simply a myth that high schoolers believe, which therefore reinforces this point of view?

12. Why do you think there are more males than females among the Stanford Computer Science graduate students? Or, what do you think keep women out?
Same as #10.

13. How do you feel about shortage of women in the CS graduate program?
Same as #11.

14. Why would you pick academia over Industry or vice versa?
The idea of education is very "noble" and attractive for the university atmosphere – more laid back, more of your own pace. Also, academia tends to be a few years in front of the industry in terms of "cutting-edge."

However, industry obviously involves money and more of a set pattern. I would personally choose industry over academia, because in the long run, I like seeing real, physical results, than dealing with theories and experiments.

15. Why do think women would choose academia over Industry or vice versa?
I have no idea if women go more one way than the other, or if they do, if it's significantly different than the ratio of men who choose academia over industry, or vice-versa. One reason that I might see more women choosing industry over academia is that industry probably accommodates women's needs more – maternity leave, day care centers for their children, etc. In general, I think it is harder to raise a family while you're pursuing a PhD or attempting to prove yourself in research. While this should apply equally to both men and women, I feel it still does affect women more (at least now) because I feel a lot of people still see the man as more of a working persona and the woman more as the family persona. However, I feel that this distinction is fading. Women still have birth to worry about, and although it is only one thing, is still a very important factor. Taking time out of academia to have a child can severely hamper your research work.

16. Do you perceive discrimination against women faculty in funding practices?
Although I have no basis for answering this question, I don't think that there is any discrimination.

17. Do you think professors are inclined to seek out female graduate students for research?
I don't think that professors seek out female graduate students for research. I feel that there is basically no discrimination here.

18. For grad students, would you prefer to have male/female advisor?
I don't think that men really care. However, I can see that a female grad student may want a female advisor if they're worried about this ratio of women to men in the field. They may choose a female advisor simply to have a person who has been in their situation to ask for advice.

1. Do you have a spouse/kids?
None

2. What is the occupational and/or education background of your parents?
Father: Elevator Engineer, Mother: Medical Technologist

3. Were your parents supportive of your CS pursuit?
Yes, very much so.

4. What is your perceived % of women faculty in the Stanford Computer Science Department?
<=10%

5. What is your perceived % of women graduate students, masters and PhDs, in the Stanford Computer Science Department?
20%

6. What is your perceived % of women in the computer science industry (technical positions)?
15%

7. What motivated you to pursue CS?
Offered a good mix of intellectual challenge and practical application.

8. What challenges/struggles have you faced in your pursuit of computer science? We want specific instances.
Finding a good balance between social and work satisfaction. CS does not prepare someone for life -- male-oriented, does not promote social interactions.

9. Through the whole process, do you perceive graduate school to be easier for males or females?
Definitely easier for males - there seems to be some barrier for women.

10. Why do you think there are more males than females among the Stanford Computer Science faculty? Or, what do you think keep women out?
Partially that it is male-dominated.

11. How do you feel about shortage of women faculty in CS?
Has adverse effects, such as detracting from potential view points that can be contributed by a different dimension, dynamic faculty.

12. Why do you think there are more males than females among the Stanford Computer Science graduate students? Or, what do you think keep women out?
Partially that it is male-dominated.

13. How do you feel about shortage of women in the CS graduate program?
Definitely takes away from the social atmosphere. Contributes to a stereo-type (that it's all a bunch of geeky guys) of computer science professionals and students.

14. Why would you pick academia over Industry or vice versa?
Go to industry because tired of school.

15. Why do think women would choose academia over Industry or vice versa?
Industry is more diverse.

16. Do you perceive discrimination against women faculty in funding practices?
No, in fact, it seems that some women are given a bit more leeway because of their under-representation.

17. Do you think professors are inclined to seek out female graduate students for research?
No, it seems that "the right people for the job" are picked for the job. Whoever meets the standards regardless of gender.

18. For grad students, would you prefer to have male/female advisor?
No preference

 

 1. Do you have a spouse/kids?
No

2. What is the occupational and education background of your
parents?
Medium.
[since matt is being conversationally uncooperative, I can fill in some info. His dad went to college, but I don’t think he finished. His mom graduated Stanford. His grandfather – who I think was a big influence – did physics and worked at SLAC back in the 50’s]

3.Were your parents supportive of your CS pursuit?
Mm hm. But my dad kicked me off the computer and made me play outside sometimes.

4. What is your perceived % of women faculty in the Stanford Computer
Science Department?
5%

5. What is your perceived % of women graduate students, masters and
PhDs, in the Stanford Computer Science Department?
10%

6. What is your perceived % of women in the computer science industry
(technical positions)?
Somewhere between 0 and 2%. I’d guess industry wide it’s gotta be 5-10% at least, but places I’ve worked it’s been a fat 0.

7. What motivated you to pursue CS?
I like programming.

8. Have you found the pursuit of CS challenging? What about female colleagues?
I find it challenging, and I don’t notice females having any harder time with it.
[answer to #9]


10. Why do you think there are more males than females among the
Stanford Computer Science faculty? Or, what do you think keep women out?

There’s not women in the field anyway. The ratio of women faculty might be lower than the ratio of women students. The difference between 100% and 10% is a lot more than 10% and 5%, so there’s a lot fewer women to draw from, and maybe the ones that are there are getting appointed professors at a lower rate, I don’t know. The whole tenure thing seems such a weird game, especially at the Stanford level anyway. I don’t know of any specific barriers other than there aren’t that many women in the position to become faculty.

11. How do you feel about shortage of women faculty in CS?

I don’t think about it too much, I guess.

12. Why do you think there are more males than females among the
Stanford Computer Science graduate students? Or, what do you think keep
women out?

I wonder how much of it has to do with them getting turned off of it at some point. You see the same sort of stats at the high or junior high school level. Maybe they like other things better, or they don’t feel welcome, maybe the numbers are so small that they figure it’s a man’s world and they don’t want to be one of 5 women in the dept. Girls are less inclined to be super nerdy than guys and sit around talking about their cool algorithm, and they’re particularly less likely to be so about hardware. Or maybe there’s just so few girls in the first place that any numbers are small.

13. How do you feel about shortage of women in the CS graduate
program?

Well, there’s no girls to hit on obviously. I don’t see it as a huge problem in and of itself, but more that it’s self-perpetuating, so girls who might be interested don’t get caught up in it because they don’t see it as a girl thing to do. And it’s probably just below critical mass to get girls to do it. Some might be turned off by the scarcity of female profs. It would make social interaction within the dept more smooth if there were more girls, not just because you can flirt, but it would lend balance, given that CS people tend to be not only male, but socially deprived. But academically I don’t really care if the other students are male or female or whatever.

14. Why did you pick industry over academia?

I don’t have anything I want to write a thesis on, which is the main reason to do a phd. I’ve been a student too long already.

15. Why do think women would choose academia over Industry or vice
versa? For different reasons than you personally?

It’s a lot easier to find jobs in industry than academia, if you’re going into academia and you’re competing for scarce teaching jobs, especially for tenure. Just being female because it’s unique would stand out possibly positively possibly negatively depending on the place, and I think that would be a significant factor in people evaluating you. It seems to be a bigger factor for academia because it’s easy to get jobs in industry right now.

17. Do you think professors are inclined to seek out female graduate
students for research or ta?

I haven’t seen to much evidence of it, but that’s probably because there aren’t too many to seek out anyway. If one came along she’d probably get snapped up.
I actually think at Stanford, assuming equal competence it’s probably an asset to be female. That’s not to say that said female might not have a hard time fitting in.

18. For grad students, would you prefer to have male/female advisor?

Given that I’d ignore either one… it doesn’t really matter.