Uilton Dutra

You don’t need to read statistic reports or visit the notable programmers list of Wikipedia to realize that we don’t have lots of girls working with computing. For who works in the field this fact is so natural that we don’t even talk about it (except when someone makes a joke).

I’ve always thought that the rareness of women was not a problem of computer science alone, because it’s easy to observe that sciences tend to have a bigger proportion of men. But toke my attention that disparity in CS is static or even shrinking according to an article published on New York Times:

“For decades, undergraduate women have been moving in ever greater numbers into science and engineering departments at American universities. Yet even as they approach or exceed enrollment parity in mathematics, biology and other fields, there is one area in which their presence relative to men is static or even shrinking: computer science.”

According to specialists, the social factor is determinant explaining why women don’t choose computer science. An article on ScienceDaily, affirms that women shy sciences and engineering because they think it’s a lonely activity. In complement, on cited NYTimes article, the scientist Dr. Jan Cuny, affirms that the nerd stereotype is a big problem.

The discrimination is also pointed as a factor of distance. But I think it’s equal to the other professional areas. What happens is that the small number of women working with computing may increase the felling of discrimination.

Another factor, generated a good debate between Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke of Harvard. It’s the idea that exist a difference of abilities between man and woman. And this fact would define the different career choices.

I don’t think that there are simple answers, because the motivations vary among different social environments. But I believe the organization and sensibility of women would be really beneficial to computing.