Affiliation:
1. Skidmore College, USA
2. Baylor University, USA
Abstract
Women earn less than 25% of undergraduate computer science (CS) degrees and hold less than 25% of CS jobs (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2019; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). However, they earn over 50% of all undergraduate degrees and hold over 50% of professional jobs in other disciplines. Despite decades of research demonstrating the issue of women's underrepresentation in the CS industry, the problem persists to the detriment of both women and the broader society that the CS industry serves. To explore the reasons for this persistence, in this chapter, the authors examine existing scholarship on women's underrepresentation in the CS field to argue that understanding women's views of CS provides a platform for designing and implementing effective educational programs that better align with the goals of bringing more women into CS.