Women in Computer Science

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From historical contributions to the development of computers to today's computer science , women have played various roles in computer science . At first, in particular the "computing" and that was programming a female profession .

History of women in computer science

The mathematician Ada Lovelace , who went down in history as the first woman programmer , made an important contribution to the development of computer science in the 19th century . During the Second World War , almost all women were involved in programming, which led to the fact that software development was then considered a woman's profession. The mathematician and physicist Grace Hopper set another milestone in the history of women in computer science with the development of the first compiler ( A-0 ) in 1952.

The proportion of women in IT professions has changed over the course of history. Like many other technical areas, computer science is currently often dominated by men, both scientifically and economically. In general, it should be noted that the proportion of women in computer science is quite different depending on the country. For example, the proportion of women studying computer science in Belgium was 6.44% in 2012, in Austria 15.01% and in Bulgaria 39.03%.

Often, the IT branch is ascribed a rather bad image, especially from the perspective of women. The image of a programmer is often equated with the image of a nerd . Many women and young girls do not want to be associated with it.

Overview of the most important female computer scientists in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries

Jade Raymond Marissa Mayer Constanze Kurz Martina Koederitz Ute Claussen Wendy Hall Radia Perlman Nancy Lynch Ina Wagner Adele Goldberg Christiane Floyd Frances Allen Jean Bartik Ruth Teitelbaum Jean E. Sammet Kathleen Booth Frances Spence Marlyn Meltzer Kathleen Antonelli Marianne Laqueur Betty Holberton Hedy Lamarr Grace Hopper Rózsa Péter Gertrude Blanch

19th century

Ada Lovelace 1836,
painting by Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793–1872)

The development process of the science known today as computer science began with the British mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815–1852). In 1842 she designed an algorithm with which Bernoulli numbers could be calculated with an analytical engine . That is why she is considered to be the first female programmer, although the analytical engine was never built during her lifetime. The Ada programming language developed in the 1970s is named after Ada Lovelace. Despite Ada Lovelace's recognition as the first female programmer, relatively few women have become known in the history of computer science, as women in the 18th and 19th centuries and into the 20th century were denied access to education and college for various reasons. Women were therefore not awarded an academic title, they were not allowed to teach at universities or publish scientific papers under their names. Invisible barriers, such as those of good behavior, made it difficult for women to access scientific resources such as libraries. Many women scientists had to rely on the help of men to compensate for the restrictions on access to scientific resources. At that time, however, science was “not yet so professionalized” that it was entirely possible to acquire knowledge informally. This fact required a great deal of ambition and perseverance from women in order to be able to pursue the social obligations of science.

20th century

Grace Hopper at the Univac keyboard, around 1960

The period from 1930 to 1950 is considered to be the early history of the computer. In this phase of development, programming was different than it is today. There were a multitude of work steps that were necessary for the implementation of programs, from the program design to the coding (the translation of the program into the machine code) to the actual "implementation of the program into the machine language". At the last level, this meant that switches in the program had to be set to on or off accordingly. At the last level, it was mainly women who worked.

During the Second World War , programming was almost entirely women. At that time and afterwards, software development was viewed as a women's profession in the United States. The reason for this was not the appreciation of the scientific work of women, but the delegation of programming work to office workers with low status. Programming was seen as an easy activity and not considered as important to hardware development. The shortage of male labor caused by World War II enabled women to pursue higher-skilled jobs related to programming. During this time, computer work was limited to a few military and university projects, which are characterized by the fact that there was a quiet but large presence of women. Due to the further development of computer work in the 1950s and the change in professional contours, what was once women's work turned into a male profession.

In the second half of the 1960s, Germany's economy recorded an increased need for skilled workers in data processing . At that time, university graduates were trained in data processing over a long period of time before their actual employment purpose. This manifested itself disadvantageously in a high financial burden for the companies as well as in a restriction of the scope of the training content for future skilled workers. To counteract this, Germany introduced the computer science course in line with the USA. "The framework for the preparation of the 'National Research Program Computer Science' came from the first 'Program for the Promotion of Research and Development in the Field of Data Processing', in short the 'First Data Processing Program' of the Federal Government."

Gertrude Blanch was hired as the technical director of the Mathematical Tables Project in 1938. Their work laid the foundation for the transition from hand-operated calculating machines to the modern computer era. Four years later (1942), Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil became known with their joint invention, which is assigned to today's field of "wireless communication".

Marlyn Meltzer began her career in computer science in 1945. Due to her competence in mathematics and the operation of calculating machines, she was accepted into the first team of ENIAC programmers. Although 6 women were significantly involved in the programming of ENIAC, only the men involved were honored when it was presented in February 1946. Kathy Kleiman made the public aware of this and thus achieved that in 1997 the 6 participating programmers were honored at a ceremony in Silicon Valley after more than 50 years. These programmers - Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli , Jean Bartik , Frances Elizabeth "Betty" Holberton , Marlyn Meltzer, Frances Spence and Ruth Teitelbaum were known as ENIAC women from then on and in 1997 they were inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame recorded. Kathleen Booth developed the ARC assembler language for computer systems at Birkbeck College, University of London in 1948.

The mathematician and physicist Grace Hopper set another milestone in the history of computer science with the development of the first compiler ( A-0 ) in 1952. In 1944 she was assigned to the Navy computer project to build the Mark I - America's first programmable large computer system. In the post-war period she also worked on the further developments of the Mark II and Mark III.

Glued-in moth with entry First actual case of bug being found in the logbook of Grace Hopper's team, September 9, 1947.

In the case of defects, however, the search for the broken components in the mainframe systems led to increased frustration. On September 9, 1947, the team members once again set about fixing a malfunction. They discovered a dead moth that had gotten caught in a relay, carefully removed it and stuck it in the logbook of the Mark II with the remark "First actual case of bug being found." The roots of the term bug go back to Thomas Edison back, who wrote the following note to his inventor colleague Tivadar Puskás as early as 1878 : “The first step [in all of my inventions] is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise - this thing gives out and [it is] then that 'Bugs' - as such little faults and difficulties are called - show themselves…. ”However, the terms bug and debugging first became popular through Grace Hopper , who reappeared in 1957 through her preparatory work on the programming language COBOL , which made it yours Nicknamed "Grandma COBOL". Both she and Jean E. Sammet held senior positions in the development of the COBOL programming language. The latter published in 1969 with "Programming languages: history and fundamentals" a work which is now considered the standard work of the programming language. In addition, she was president of the ACM ( Association for Computing Machinery ) from 1972 to 1974 and thus the first president of this organization. Even Adele Goldberg served as President of the oldest computer professional association in the world in between 1984 and 1986th The American researcher was, among other things, the head of the development team for the programming language Smalltalk (programming language) . The achievements of Rózsa Péter , who in 1952 became the first woman in Hungary to be awarded a doctorate in mathematics, are also worth mentioning . She invented the " recursive function " and laid the foundation for theoretical computer science. The American computer scientist Frances E. Allen made an appearance through her competence in the area of ​​program optimization and parallelization and thus became a pioneer in compiler technology. In 1959 she worked on what was then the IBM 7030 Stretch supercomputer . Also applies Nancy Lynch as an important woman in the field of computer science. She is considered an expert in the field of distributed computing and distributed systems. She received her doctorate in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972 and is still a professor there. Furthermore, she received several prizes for her research contributions:

2001: PODC Influential Paper Award; 2006: Van Wijngaarden Award; 2007: Knuth Prize; 2007: Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing; 2010: IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award; 2012–2013: Athena Lecturer award. Christiane Floyd's activities should also be emphasized, as she is the first female computer science professor in German-speaking countries and, as a leading researcher in the field of participatory software design, occupies an important position.

The German computer scientist Marianne Laqueur became known as the first computer specialist and worked in this field for over 40 years.

Radia Perlman , a software developer and network technician, first appeared with the invention of the Spanning Tree Protocol . This algorithm was declared the IEEE 802 .1D standard in 1990 . In the further course of her career, she contributed her knowledge in the areas of network design and standardization and thus made a significant contribution to progress.

Corinna Cortes became known for her theoretical basics in the field of support vector machines . In her further career she dealt with databases and search algorithms, which means that she made a considerable contribution to data mining .

Ute Claussen wrote some papers in the areas of real-time image processing and light calculation and continues her career as an independent entrepreneur in the field of computer science to this day.

21st century

Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond achieves notable results in the field of computer science. She is considered to be the producer of the Assassin's Creed series , a game from the action-adventure genre that has sold over 80 million copies, and the game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist . She is also the founder of the Ubisoft division in Toronto . Their latest production is the open-world action-adventure Watch Dogs . She was also responsible for Sony's game Jeopardy . She is also listed as the producer of the online game The Sims . Ina Wagner established her own branch of research in Austria (multidisciplinary system design and computer supported cooperative works) and was awarded the Vienna Women's Prize in 2011 for her work in this regard .

In the same year Ivona Brandic was awarded the Science Prize of the Vienna University of Technology and in 2015 received the Start Prize of the Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research , Austria's most important prize for young researchers. Together with her team, she dealt with energy reduction in high-performance computers. Ellen Spertus and Liz Looney played a key role in the development of the Inventor app in 2011 . With this application, apps for Android devices can be created according to the modular principle.

Kimberley Bolton was the first woman to win the Microsoft “Apprentice of the Year” award in the “Medium Business Category”.

Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer completed her bachelor's degree in Symbolic Systems and her master's degree in computer science at Stanford University , graduating with honors. While she made it to the position of Vice President as the first female technician at Google (and was nicknamed “Googirl”), she has been CEO of Yahoo since 2012 . The American business magazine Fortune voted her 14th in the “50 Most Powerful Women In Business” in 2012 (2011: 38th). She is also mentioned in Newsweek's “10 Tech Leaders of the Future” and was elected to the “ Silicon Valley Dream Team” by Business 2.0 . Red Herring magazine named her one of the "15 Women to Watch".

Ina Schieferdecker studied mathematical computer science at the Humboldt University of Berlin and received her doctorate in 1994 from the Technical University of Berlin on performance-enhanced specifications and the analysis of service quality properties. From 1997 to 2004 she was the head of the competence center for testing, interoperability and performance. Afterwards she was head of the competence center for modeling and testing at the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) in Berlin. After further positions in computer science, she has headed the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS together with Professor Manfred Hauswirth since January 1, 2015. On January 1, 2016, she accepted the call to professorship at the Technical University of Berlin in the “Quality Engineering of Open Distributed Systems” department at the Institute for Telecommunication Systems.

Share of women in the field of IT

Despite all efforts, it can be observed in Germany that the proportion of women in the number of newly concluded training contracts in IT professions has steadily fallen from 14% in 1997 to 7.5% in 2012. “… Compared to the Romance, Slavic and other European countries, the participation of women in German-speaking countries, the Netherlands, but also in Scandinavian countries and Great Britain.” Since 1970, many Western countries have recorded a decline in women in IT over 50 %.

Above all in the field of entrepreneurship in the IT sector, i.e. when founding companies, there is unused female potential: According to the German Startup Monitor, ten percent of all startup founders are female, while the proportion of women in high-tech start-ups is 10 percent at 13% lower than the proportion of women in all company start-ups. Women start-ups in the high-tech sector also start smaller, show less innovation than new companies run by men, and grow more slowly.

There is generally a low quota of women in management positions in Germany, as is the case in technical professions. The share of female academics in the STEM subjects is currently only 20%. (As of November 5, 2014) This percentage also applies to the IT department. In 2014, 5.6% more women enrolled in computer science at German universities than in 2013, but the proportion of women was still only a good fifth. “It is interesting to note that many of the so-called industrially developed countries are relatively 'underdeveloped' in terms of gender when it comes to admitting women to these 'tough' and influential subjects. Another notable observation is that the proportion of women in science and technology within Europe is higher in the former socialist and Romance countries than in the Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and German-speaking countries. Within Europe, Turkey, Spain and Portugal are overall leaders in terms of the admission of women to science and technology at all levels of the career ladder. "

“In Kuwait almost 50% of all computer science students are female, in 1993 in mathematics and computer science combined it was even over 72%. In Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Lebanon, women make up the majority in technical high schools. In Iran and Turkey, too, female participation in technical and computer science courses at all academic levels is comparatively high in comparison to northwest industrialized countries and Japan. "

Quota of women in computer science studies in selected countries (2003 and 2012)

The following table shows how the proportion of women in selected countries developed from 2003 to 2012. Only those countries are shown for which corresponding values ​​are available for both years. The following specifics were used:

First phase of tertiary education. Programs that are theory-oriented or research preparatory or offer access to professions with very high qualification requirements (first university degree of level 5 A).

Geographical area Share of women in
2003
Share of women in
2012
Relative
proportion of women in 2012 compared to 2003
Belgium 8.88% 6.44% 72.50%
Bulgaria 48.71% 39.03% 80.13%
Germany 15.09% 17.05% 113.01%
Estonia 27.22% 22.32% 81.99%
European Union (27 countries) 22.73% 16.79% 73.86%
European Union (28 countries) 22.75% 16.83% 73.96%
Euro area (17 countries) 21.52% 16.71% 77.65%
Euro area (18 countries) 21.58% 16.72% 77.46%
Finland 42.38% 22.79% 53.78%
Latvia 25.88% 17.66% 68.24%
Lithuania 34.01% 18.73% 55.08%
Malta 6.67% 37.36% 560.44%
Netherlands 14.69% 13.29% 90.49%
Norway 20.23% 13.26% 65.56%
Austria 9.47% 15.01% 158.59%
Poland 17.62% 10.96% 62.21%
Portugal 36.05% 20.09% 55.72%
Switzerland 6.38% 6.44% 100.96%
Slovenia 4.92% 13.35% 271.39%
Spain 21.93% 15.87% 72.38%
Turkey 24.68% 29.42% 119.20%
Czech Republic 15.16% 11.30% 74.50%
Hungary 21.58% 16.80% 77.87%

Source: Eurostat

Reasons for the low proportion of women in IT

In general, this occupational field is assigned a rather bad image despite the good framework conditions. Often the image of a programmer is stigmatized with the image of a nerd . Many women and young girls do not want to be associated with it. This negative image has been true for decades, especially from the perspective of women, which explains why the proportion of women among computer scientists is still very low in many countries. In 1967 Cosmopolitan quotes a programmer from Los Angeles Bank with her statement on the change in her own assessment: “'I had this idea I'd be standing at a big machine and pressing buttons all day long,' says a girl who programs for a Los Angeles bank. 'I couldn't have been further off the track. I figure out how the computer can solve a problem, and then instruct the machine to do it. '“The assumption that women are fundamentally little interested in computers and technology is incorrect. The negative image can therefore mean that women - despite their fundamental interest - do not aspire to this occupation. The early socialization of children and the stereotypical gender roles of men and women are further reasons for the low proportion of women in computer science. Since men often decide to study computer science based on their biography, they are far less likely than women to have to justify their choice. Women, on the other hand, often blame coincidences for having studied computer science, or they get into this area via detours, not infrequently only in adulthood.

In addition to cultural and structural reasons, the fear of the problems associated with working in a male-dominated sector (e.g. sexual harassment, women are often less trusted, above-average commitment to male colleagues in order to achieve equal acceptance) is a possible trigger for a small percentage of women in IT. The girls' self-efficacy expectation (“I can do it!”) Is often not so pronounced due to family socialization that they dare to work independently in the IT area.

A 1991 paper by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) states that women have a distorted perception or prejudice about computer science. The prevailing job description, according to which computer scientists write computer programs all day or always sit in front of the computer and hardly communicate with people, creates false expectations. The fear of not being able to study computer science due to a lack of financial means (buying a new computer), the fact that the study program is very technical and abstract and the lack of special prior knowledge prevents many women from starting a computer science course.

Another reason for a low quota of women in IT is the high dropout rate among women. While women generally drop out of a MINT degree less often than men (e.g. in engineering) or about the same frequency (e.g. in mathematics or the natural sciences), women in computer science have a much higher dropout rate. Although the reasons for this are not known, there is a connection with the fact that women in this subject group rate the quality of the course significantly worse than men. Measures to reduce dropout rates are therefore urgently required. This includes structural reforms of the degree program that bring about the paradigm shift “from teaching to learning” - “from teaching to learning”.

In addition to the belief that starting a family and a career in IT are incompatible, there are also (unfounded) uncertainties about career prospects that are important reasons for a woman not to pursue an IT profession. Many of the above "reasons" are completely irrelevant. Computer scientists write computer programs, but they also have to organize projects, present results, test solutions, advise customers or find out what requirements they have. In order to be successful as a computer scientist, good social interaction with project participants, customers and in the group is essential. Therefore, group work is usually included in study programs as well as teaching basic knowledge in order to keep the entry barrier as low as possible. “In order to study computer science, it is by no means necessary to have a command of programming languages ​​(just as you don't have to know the legal texts to study law).” In addition, some universities offer the option of renting laptops and thus prevent high financial outlay in the beginning. In addition to knowledge of math and English, computer scientists primarily need perseverance, concentration, a creative streak and communication skills. "Quite a few computer scientists do not program at all in their professional life."

Sticking to traditional role models can also be cited as a reason why schoolgirls strive for this career less often than for example in the social or medical field. The computer has become a cultural symbol that almost contradicts the image of women.

Switzerland is also aware of the problem of the long-term threatening shortage of qualified young people in IT. The fact that the quota of women in Switzerland is only around 20% in this area shows that this is a problem that does not only affect Germany. Further data show that despite efforts to date, the proportion of women in computer science (as well as engineering and physics ) is below 30% across the EU as well as in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, South Africa and the United States .

The approach that lasting changes can be achieved by influencing women (“fixing the women”) has proven to be incorrect; Organizations and institutions have to change (“fixing the organization”).

Image of the IT industry

Although the IT professions are very diverse, they have a bad image compared to equivalent training. The recognition of these professions within society is significantly lower. As before, one imagines an IT specialist as a lone warrior & freak behind her computer. Companies and organizations are only slowly succeeding in improving the image of this industry. An empirical study carried out in 2011/2012 came to the result that “the traditional job description of the male computer scientist is being softened”, but this can hardly be generalized due to the small database (15 interviews with schoolgirls aged 13 to 15 years).

Career prospects

Due to the rapid progress in technical development, programmable devices are becoming increasingly important in our everyday lives. A large number of tasks are already taken over by them. This fact increases the demand for female developers. Despite considerable earning potential, IT specialists are difficult to find on the job market. Many computer scientists are courted by companies during their internship. Most IT companies have been complaining for years that too few IT specialists are available. In Germany alone, around 40,000 positions have been vacant in this sector for years. Companies therefore often strive to offer a job that is family-friendly through part-time models and home work. Such changes in the work and corporate culture , which include appropriate promotion practices, are necessary to make these professional fields attractive to women.

Current contributions by women in computer science (as of April 2015)

The International Business Machines Corporation ( IBM ), one of the world's leading companies for hardware, software and services in the IT sector, has had a female CEO of IBM Germany since May 2011. Martina Koederitz started her career at IBM in 1987 as a system consultant, today she is responsible as General Manager for IBM Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The German computer scientist Constanze Kurz , spokeswoman for the Chaos Computer Club, addressed the issue in her dissertation voting machines . In 2011, Constanze Kurz was voted 38th among the “most important personalities in German IT” by the weekly Computerwoche .

The British computer scientist Wendy Hall was President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from 2008 to 2010 . It is noteworthy that she was the first woman to head the ACM. In addition to being a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, she is a leading researcher in multimedia and the Internet.

Jennifer Widom teaches as a professor at Stanford University and does extensive research in the field of databases . As a computer scientist, she has already received numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship Award and the VLDB2000 10-Year Paper Award.

Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann can call herself the developer of the avatars . She is the director of the Institute for Media Innovation (IMI) in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University . The researcher works increasingly in the field of computer animation and is the founder and head of the MIRALab.

Current organizations and projects to increase the women's quota (as of April 2015)

Germany

In 2002 the Federal-State Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion recommended promoting the proportion of women in engineering and natural science courses and, above all, urged study reforms; these should only be supplemented by measures for schoolchildren and assistance with starting a career. An assessment of the measures implemented in 2011 showed, however, that only 17% of the activities are aimed at study reforms at universities; the vast majority of the offers are aimed at school girls. Evaluations showed that although these school-related measures are well received by the target group and rated positively, long-term effects cannot be proven. The stagnating proportion of female students suggests that the school-related initiatives do not lead to the expected changes in behavior. Structural changes in the courses are therefore still urgently needed. But structural reforms are also more promising than individual measures in the school sector:

“Girls - and boys too - are more likely to take up typically male professions if their math skills are higher than their reading skills. We found that out in studies. In practice, this means that if the schools manage to warm girls up for subjects like math and physics, then a step has already been taken in the right direction. And a second aspect that affects boys more: If the wage gap between typically male and typically female professions did not widen so wide, more men could get used to the idea of ​​working in an originally female-dominated profession - in kindergarten or in a nursing home Example. However, research also shows that this would only marginally change the gender differences in career choices. "

The Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. developed the initiative "Girls go Informatik: The link to your future!" For women. The Girls 'Day - Girls' Future Day is an annual day of action, which serves as a career orientation for girls from the fifth grade in the technical and scientific field. Another national program is "FrITZI - Forum on Information Society, Technology, Future and IT Professions"

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research and partners to recruit young women for MINT professions offers the initiative “Come on MINT”. With the support of over 100 partners, attempts are made in offers such as children's universities, taster days or campus tours to realistically portray the engineering and natural science professions and at the same time to show their attractive sides; At the partner universities, measures have been introduced to reform the course content, teaching and learning forms of the MINT courses in order to increase their attractiveness. Another program is CyberMentor , where contact between a schoolgirl and an advanced MINT student or a woman who is already working in the MINT area is established for a professional, but also personal exchange over a whole year. The “Network FIT” - women, innovation, technology Baden-Württemberg and “idee-it”, a federal training project for girls and young women in IT and media professions, are two further projects to increase the proportion of women. The University of Bremen offers an international summer course for women in computer science (Informatica feminale).

In 2001, the European Academy for Women in Politics and Business Berlin founded the “Femtec” network together with the Technical University of Berlin . The offers are aimed at young people at the transition between school and university, female students and graduates, and female managers of the future.

Individual universities have set up their own programs to interest girls of secondary school age in the natural sciences, such as the Technical University of Munich . Many German universities have developed a catalog of measures to increase the proportion of women studying computer science. The HTW Berlin designed a course for women only: Since 2009 there is the women's study of computer science and business. The balance after five years is positive. The University of Hamburg tried using the approach "Two-Way Street" the coupling of gender studies in the social sciences with technical disciplines.

Austria

In Austria, the national programs “FIT - Women in Technology” of the Johannes Kepler University Linz and the Girls' Day are available. The Girls' Day offers offers for different target groups:

Depending on the age of the participants, there is the Girls 'Day, an exclusive offer for the target group “girls in the 3rd and 4th grades of secondary schools, new middle schools and general secondary schools, who hold Girls' Day in a craft, technical or scientific company spend “, the Girls' Day JUNIOR, an offer for girls of the 3rd / 4th. Classes in elementary schools and the Girls' Day MINI for girls in kindergartens.

The regional programs include "TEquality - Technik.Gender.Equality" and the "MiT" initiative - girls in technology. In addition to these measures at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, the Faculty of Computer Science in Vienna promotes the equality and promotion of women and defines appropriate measures in its mission statement.

Switzerland

In Switzerland you can take a taster course in computer science, a one-week intensive introductory course in computer science for women. It is hoped that this will increase the proportion of women in IT. In addition to the trial course, there is also the “Women in Natural Sciences and Technology” initiative offered by the University of Freiburg.

United States

The supraregional programs include the “Girls Who Code” program (a mentoring boot camp, “We're creating a classroom in a technology company”) and the “Made With Code” program, a Google campaign aimed at getting girls excited about an IT degree. Universities are also trying to increase their proportion of women through appropriate measures. Carnegie Mellon University is an example of success which shows that the proportion of women in computer science studies can be significantly increased through appropriate measures. In the period from 1995 to 2002 this share could be increased from 7% to 45%. This was achieved through the following main measures: Due to a change in recruitment, enrollment with little computer skills is now possible. The offer was adapted in such a way that a basic course for programming with little previous knowledge is offered - in addition to the previous offer for those with previous knowledge. By changing the content of the curriculum and introducing workshops for IT teachers at high schools with the aim of making teachers aware of the “gender gap” in IT and teaching them new teaching strategies, the quota of women could also be increased.

Basis for increasing the proportion of women

Change of terms

One of the proposals to increase the proportion of women in IT is in the direction of realigning the underlying value systems by changing terms. For example, an important discipline in computer science, the creation of software, is currently referred to by the term "software engineering" - a term that already indicates a strong technical orientation. In the training phase, this focus is often reflected in the negligibly small amount of learning content that aims at communicative skills. However, this ignores the fact that the most serious problems when developing software are often not technical, but rather social. Often the wishes and needs of the client are not researched and formulated thoroughly enough in advance, so that the created products are functional, but do not match the requirements and therefore have to be changed with considerable effort. A rethinking of the value system on which the term "engineering" is based could not only make this professional field more attractive for women, it could also be an advantage for the subject.

Change in values ​​regarding part-time work

Part-time work is still a predominantly female phenomenon. When they become mothers, well-qualified women need flexible working hours and childcare facilities whose location and opening times suit the workplace. One reason that this is still lacking could be that part-time work is still inferior to full-time work because “ … the popular image of a serious professional still evokes a full-time worker who keeps his or her domestic and business worlds completely separate. ”( Janet Abbate , German:“… the common image of an academic specialist still refers to a full-time employee who keeps their private and professional spheres completely separate from one another. ”) A change in values ​​could lead to family-friendly measures in the academic field being implemented Become the norm.

Requirements for companies

In a 2013 study, the corporate and strategy consultancy McKinsey & Company found that corporate culture and the factors embedded in it (such as prevailing leadership styles, the company's striving for “gender diversity” and performance models) double the trust women have in their professional success influence as much as individual factors (such as ambition; willingness to make sacrifices or individual actions to favor a promotion). The study came to the conclusion that just over half of the male respondents consider too many initiatives (such as for recruitment and further development) by the company to promote women to be unfair.

Women's networks

For women in male domains, supportive people in their environment are of great importance. In addition to a positive family and professional environment, membership in a network should be mentioned as well as “ the value of efforts such as conferences and mentoring programs that broaden and internationalize women's support networks. ”( Janet Abbate , German:“ the importance of efforts such as conferences and mentoring programs that put the support of women's networks on a broader and transnational basis. ”)

Scientific examination of women in computer science

It is of great importance "that the underlying causes and connections are recognized and curricular changes must be accompanied scientifically and competently."

Exhibitions

  • 2015/2016: In the beginning there was Ada. Women in Computer History. , Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum. On the occasion of the 200th birthday of Ada Lovelace. "The exhibition puts the development of information technology in relation to the female role models of the 19th and 20th centuries."

See also

Portal: Informatik  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of informatics

Well-known scientists:

Portal: Women  - Overview of Wikipedia content on women

literature

  • 2018: OECD report: Bridging the Digital Gender Divide: Include, Upskill, Innovate. 2018 (English; PDF: 8 MB, 151 pages on oecd.org ).
  • 2015: Sybille Krämer (Ed.): Ada Lovelace: The pioneer of computer technology and her successors. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-7705-5986-2 .
  • 1997: Renate Tobies (Ed.): “All male culture in spite of”. Women in math and science . With a foreword by Knut Radbruch . Campus, Frankfurt a. M./New York 1997, ISBN 3-593-35749-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • 1995: ACM (Ed.): Communications of the ACM. Focus issue: Women in computing: Where are we now? Volume 38, No. 1, January 1995 (English; doi: 10.1145 / 204865.204874 ).
  • 1988: Sherry Turkle : Computational Reticence: Why Women Fear the Intimate Machine. In: Cheris Kramarae (Ed.): Technology and Women's Voices: Keeping in Touch. Routledge & Kegan Paul, New York 1988, ISBN 0-7102-0679-8 , pp. 42-61 (English).
  • 1987: Margaret Alic: Hypathia's Daughters: The Denied Proportion of Women in Science. Unionsverlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-293-00116-5 (original: Hypatia's heritage ).
  • 1987: Ute Hoffmann: Computer women: What part do women have in computer history and work? Hampp, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-924346-44-5 .

motion pictures

Web links

Commons : Frauen in der Informatik (female computer scientists)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Portals:

Individual evidence

  1. a b Number of qualifications in ISCED levels 3-6, by subject and gender [educ_grad5]. In: Eurostat.com. January 12, 2015, accessed on September 6, 2015 (Field: "Informatik", Time: "2003; 2012", Geo: e.g .: "Spain", ISCED97: "ED5AD1 - First phase of tertiary education, programs that are theory-oriented / research preparatory or have access to professions with very high qualifications ... ", sex: select" women; total "and select" update "-> select" download ", the selected data is displayed in an exported table.).
  2. ^ Joachim Budde: Computer science with image problems. In: zeit.de. March 13, 2007, accessed September 6, 2015 .
  3. a b c d e f g h Women and computer science - reasons why girls should study computer science. (No longer available online.) In: FH-Zwickau.de . 2015, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on December 14, 2019 .
  4. a b Computer science studies: Where are the women? In: berlin.de. June 18, 2013, accessed September 6, 2015 .
  5. Randall Stross: What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science? In: zeit.de. November 15, 2008, accessed September 6, 2015 .
  6. ^ John Fuegi, Jo Francis: Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes' . Annals of the History of Computing . 25, No. 4, 2003, doi: 10.1109 / MAHC.2003.1253887 , pp. 16-26.
  7. Veronika Oechtering: The exclusion of women in modern times. (No longer available online.) In: Women in the history of information technology. University of Bremen, 2001, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on September 6, 2015 .
  8. a b c d e Ute Hoffmann: Computer women. What part do women have in computer history and work? 2nd Edition. Hampp, Munich 1987, pp. 43-85.
  9. Ute Hoffmann: Computer women. What part do women have in computer history and work? 2nd Edition. Hampp, Munich 1987, p. 43.
  10. a b c Britta Schinzel, Christine Zimmer: Computer science women. FZG / FGS - Freiburg journal for gender studies. 1998, p. 232, Volume 4, No. 6.
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  55. ^ Joint Science Conference (GWK) (Ed.): Women in MINT subjects. Accounting for activities in the university sector. Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-942342-08-7 , p. 143.
  56. ^ Joint Science Conference (GWK) (Ed.): Women in MINT subjects. Accounting for activities in the university sector. Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-942342-08-7 , p. 144.
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  58. School, what then? Vodafone Foundation Germany, January 25, 2014, accessed on September 6, 2015 .
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  60. Judith Zimmermann: Why does computer science need more women? (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Professional Computing. January 2005, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved November 4, 2014 .
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