Picture obtained from Mike Muuss's collection of historic computer images.

Selected Quotes from Interviewed Stanford Faculty and Students

"A Gender base support group is not always the most effective. Sympathetic people are more important. It seemed to me that all women were in theory, but maybe that was just what Berkeley was like. I had to modify my behavior in the systems group, I had to learn to interrupt people more, otherwise Iâd never be heard." - Female Faculty

"I think it's a manifestation of another issue which is lack of encouragement of young women and girls in engineering/math/CS areas." - Female Faculty

"People need role models (people at the next stage to see how to get there). Did not happen for me until grad school (Had Monica Lam for 143). Profound impact - inspiring to have Monica Lam. Made it seem more doable - I can do that someday. If all I see is white 50 yer old males, think can I ever be there. A lot easier if have a role model that looks like you. If each stage in game cutting %women in half, odds of getting role model very low. " - Female Faculty

"So there is bias, other women have told me about it, but since I've never experienced it myself I find it hard to swallow. I wonder how much of it is historic, before all the attention has been brought to being PC. And how much of it is from women who are overly sensitive, and not willing to be as flexible and open-minded as they would require people to be of them. " - Female PhD

"Socially, I just find myself in awkward situations. Guys hit on me all the time, including a TA. My friendliness gets mistaken for flirtation or romantic interest. Why can't a girl just kick back and hang out with a guy without him and everyone else thinking that there is a romantic involvement! I had lunch with a male peer and everyone regarded it as a date. It's ridiculous. Just this past year, three CS peers/friends mistook my friendliness for romantic interest, resulting in things becoming awkward between us. I feel like I have to change my behavior so I don't send mixed signals." - Female Masters

"There are lots more guys. It's not so much an issue, I think it's nice to be unusual. However, sometimes it's uncomfortable being the only female. " - Female Masters

"Stanford is not hiring less women than are available, although they could potentially try harder to search for qualified women. " - Male Faculty

"Just input we have - overall society issue. We don't get that many applicants. Our searches are completely unbiased - we do not look at gender. We do not look for women or men. It'd be nice to have more women, but not willing to sacrifice quality of dept for it. Have to start at earlier stages and get more women to go into CS and research." - Male Faculty

"[Grad School is] easier for females because there are fewer women, everyone is very supportive of helping women achieve their goals in their field, whereas men are on their own - good luck." - Male PhD

"I wish there were more women in the field but not for any professional reasons - it's just ridiculous to be surrounded by men. " - Male PhD

"Once a person is in graduate school, I donât perceive any difference in difficulty. I donât think that there is any difference in getting into graduate school, either. Yes, there are a lot fewer female applicants, but I really donât 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. " - Male Masters

"[The shortage of women in CS] 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." - Male Masters