New booklet reaches out to young women

By Dian Rae Lopez, Stephanie Sides and Ann Redelfs

This column has often reported on statistics pointing out that young women need mentoring, information and encouragement to enter the computer science and engineering (CS&E) fields. The 1994 Computing Research Association Taulbee Survey [CRA95] showed that only 18% of the undergraduate degrees offered in these fields are awarded to women.

What can you do to help increase these numbers? You can help facilitate the distribution of Women in Computer Science, a booklet published to encourage young women at the high school and undergraduate levels to become aware of the many options available to those who choose to major in computing fields. The booklet consists of 18 short biographies of women with careers in computing who talk about their jobs, their backgrounds and their lives. Your help is needed to make young women aware of the many exciting computing careers available to them. By using women with careers in CS&E as role models to distribute this booklet, the impact can be even greater. Women students can realize that it is possible for them to have such a career.

If you are an administrator in a college or university, this is your chance to do something to help young women in your area realize the many benefits of choosing a computing field for their major while they are undergraduates. Invite a female computer professional as a speaker and have her distribute booklets after the presentation. Encourage your female computing faculty to promote the idea of careers for women in computer science areas by giving them release time from other duties to present seminars at nearby high schools. Make the booklets available to all your undergraduate advisers. Develop strategies to reach the audience that will benefit most from a presentation of careers in CS&E. Recognize the value of such outreach activities.

If you are a male faculty member in a computing field, encourage the distribution of the booklets in your department. Make sure all your female advisees receive one. Think of ways the department can encourage more young women to consider computing majors. If you can help in any way with the distribution of the booklets, including talking with high school students, please do. There are often not enough women in CS&E to carry out such a task by themselves.

If you are a woman in the computing field, please consider volunteering to talk to groups of high school students about the variety and challenges of a career in computing. Also consider ways of reaching first- and second-year undergraduates by telling them what it is like to study computing and how many options are available to them with a CS&E major. The impact of such a booklet is made far greater when delivered by a successful female computing professional.

Readers who work in industry can encourage women in CS&E to reach out to high school and undergraduate women. An invited talk is always welcome at universities as well as in high school classrooms. Are there ways you can promote outreach from your company to young women searching for knowledge about career paths?

About the booklet

Published by the CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research, Women in Computer Science presents women working in a variety of computing positions. The women discuss their jobs and how they chose their careers. They tell stories of the competition and occasional isolation they faced in college, the intellectual challenges and opportunities for advancement they've enjoyed through their chosen profession and how they have balanced career with family.

Those in industry work at IBM Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Motorola Inc., Schlumberger Laboratory for Computer Science and Northern Telecom. Those in academia work at Harvard University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, the University of Minnesota, the University of California at Irvine and the University of Toronto. Those in government work at the Defense Department, the National Film Board in Montreal and the Canadian Space Agency. One entrepreneur formed her own company.

Distributing the booklets

With the help of the National Science Foundation and CRA, the committee has printed 15,000 copies of the booklet. It is expected that more will be needed. To facilitate seminars, especially for high school groups, a helpful brochure (with ideas and suggestions for a successful presentation) will be prepared and distributed.

To receive a copy of the brochure or to order the booklet, send your e-mail request to Dian Lopez at lopezdr@cda.mrs.umn.edu. Booklets may also be ordered by contacting Kimberly Peaks of CRA at tel. 202-234-2111 or via e-mail at kpeaks@cra.org.

References

[CRA95] CRA. "1994 CRA Taulbee Survey," Computing Research News, 7(2):7-9, March 1995.

Dian Rae Lopez is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Minnesota at Morris and the leader of the careers booklet project.

Stephanie Sides is manager of information services at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

Ann Redelfs is deputy director of external relations for the San Diego Supercomputer Center.