1. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
“We’re sheep in the lion’s den. Let’s teach the lions not to eat the sheep. Not that we’re really sheep. ”
[female undergrad CS]
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

2. Community, Space, and Support:
Gender & IT
Education
Community, Space, and Support:
Keys to People-Friendly
Gender Climates?
Principal Investigator: Jean C. Robinson
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

3. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Research Questions
Do special programs and institutional structures create a more women-friendly environment for students?
To what extent do students recognize the value of these programs and institutional structures?
Are applied IT fields more successful than computer science in establishing more women-friendly climates?
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

4. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
BACKGROUND
What are factors in creating women-friendly CS/IT fields?
More women faculty (Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Roberts et. al, 2002; Cuny & Aspray, 2002)
Support groups and networking (Gabbert & Meeker, 2002)
Mentoring and role models (Townsend, 2002; Ogan 2007)
Changing gendered stereotypes (Hanks, 2007; Lagesen, 2007; Herring & Marken, 2007)
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

5. National Support Systems
National Organizations
ACM (14% F)
ASIS, AECT,SIGMIS no gender data
Women on Editorial Boards of Major Journals
Women’s Caucuses
(33 national organizations)
Recruitment & Retention Programs
23+ different sources for grants, fellowships
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

6. University Support Systems
% Female
Faculty total
# Programs for Women in IT
# Women Science/
Mentoring
Programs
# Student-based Women/
IT group
BUFFALO 32
n.a. 1
ILL 28 3 IN 35 4 2
MICH 33 5
WASH 22
Information collected 2005
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

7. Departmental Contexts
One Measure of Women-Friendliness: Percentage of Women Faculty, 2005
BUFFALO
ILL
IND
MICH
WASH CS
8.3
11.5
9.6
8.8
12.5
Informatics/
Information
34.6*
n.a.
20.5
32.3
42.8
INF SYS
33.
17.6
IST/ED TECH
[60] 14
22.2
INFO SCI
40.
46.6
*Informatics disbanded at Buffalo 2006
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

8. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Methods
How to measure student recognition of and receptivity to women-friendly climates (without asking?)
Analyze student responses to:
If you could change three things about your program, what would they be?
If everything in your program was going to be changed, except three things, what would you keep?
Describe something that happened in the program that made you feel valued.
Face-to-face interviews, done in first round. Analyzed with ATLAS.ti using coding and co-occurrence networks.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

9. What Matters: Beyond good teachers & curriculum
All Women
All men
CS Women
Non-CS Women
Faculty recognition
41%
28.2%
38.2%
42.5%
Physical space
28.4%
8.7%
35.2%
23.4
Community
17.3%
17.4%
23.5%
12.7%
Other responses in descending order: Institutional recognition (awards & scholarships), group work, involvement in volunteering/ hosting/recruiting; self-efficacy; representing students.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

10. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Findings
Recognition by faculty
cited most often as an instance of feeling valued
strongest for all women (41% of women) and especially strong for non-CS graduate students (51%), both male and female
Recognition varies from nominating for internships/summer jobs, asking to be a TA, or faculty just talking with students and remembering their name
So when we’re talking to someone else, a third party is
present, he’s always promoting me. And whenever I come back from such
gathering I’m uplifted. Say yeah! Such a great feeling.
Female CS Doctoral Student
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

11. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Physical space
Second highest in frequency
Mentioned by far more women than men, more CS female than other groups; more important for grads.
Natural lighting & comfortable lounges; places to work and feel safe 24/7
“The Center is its own little island; its own little community and it gives it a completely different atmosphere. There’s people in [the] Center 24 hours a day. You walk in; it’s never going to be empty. It’s a continuously-living environment and that kind of a feeling you won’t get anywhere else. it’s really nice.” Fem. CS ug
“Whenever you have students that are more focused on who has the office space versus their research, then it’s not good. Like they’re worried about where are they’re going to work instead of working. [short laugh] And also there’s just no space for kind of, sit around and talk.” Fem CS PhD student.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

12. Importance of community
Third highest frequency among women; 2nd among men
Especially important to CS women grads
Described as collegiality, working together, keeping doors open, access to faculty, collaborative, socializing, decreased competition.
“It’s all about the people.” Male CS PhD student
“Many of the students and faculty believe it’s very important to have a sense of community. So I would definitely keep that, the sense of community.” Female CS PhD Student
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

13. Women-Friendly Strategies
Percentage of Subjects Citing Women-Friendly Strategies as Important or Valued
All Women
All Men
CS Women
Non-CS Women
Women’s groups + other strategies
32.1%
8.7%
44.1%
17%
Women’s groups alone
7.4%
20.5%
Women’s groups combined answers coded: WIC or WIS; Climate for women; women’s options in CS/INFOR; positive about female faculty; female recruitment positive; diversity programming positive.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

14. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Women’s Groups
CS women are most articulate about need for women’s support groups, need for women faculty, support for diversity programming
Indeed only CS women talked about the importance of women’s groups and about criticism about women’s support systems.
“Having that is like the best resource for our freshmen … just because it automatically gives them a place they can go and say, “Hey, there are more people here like me that are going to face the same problems with the guys that I’m going to face,” and it gives them a nice little place to go and meet other people. And when there are only about 20 other women in our department, it’s an easy way to meet all of them. Female CS ug
“Oh, WCS only gets this because the department just, you know, they’re trying to recruit more girls.” That’s the wrong kind of attitude. It’s like, it should be more of, “They’re getting this because they’re a student organization who does the same thing that other student organizations do.” I face a lot of this in ACM sometimes, just from some of the guys. Female CS ug
“Most of the things that I do that have that …connotation (of feeling valued) usually involve the Woman Computer Science Organization. I’ve been really, really active in that just because that’s basically my support group.” Female CS ug
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

15. Gender ad IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Students who were involved in women’s programs were also strongly supportive of these programs and simultaneously (or consequentially) more aware of “woman-unfriendly” characteristics among their peers or within the department.
“ [We need] more support groups, more acknowledgment. [X] doesn’t really do anything to support women, it’s kind of just an afterthought or if they want publicity they’ll do something and it’s really disappointing.” Female CS MA student
“I mean, if we just had women in our organization, we’d have like 10 people, because half of the women … don’t want to do it. [We say to guys] “We definitely want you to join because we want more people,” and besides, it’s not just our concern. Guys in our department want to see more girls here, too. They’re tired of being in classes that are like 95% male, so it’s a good way to get them to join, too. “ Female CS ug
Gender ad IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

16. The view from within non-CS programs
Non-CS women mention the need for more women faculty, but did not mention women’s support groups
“Maybe more women in it? Maybe more women teachers. Um, I mean that would help the female side of it.” Female non-CS ug
Indeed in our interviews, the women in applied fields do not seem to be concerned about gender as a problem. Instead women talked about many of the same kinds of issues that men did– group work, collaboration, good faculty advisors, space issues, capstones, pathways, faculty support.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

17. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Discussion
We hypothesized that non-CS programs would have more gender-friendly climates.
CS departments seem to have more active participation in women’s support organizations and more programming for women than in many applied programs. This programming is often defined as creating more women-friendliness.
Hanks (2007) finds that CS are consistently low in the numbers of women. Our findings suggest that CS women are more likely than non-CS women to express support for women’s groups, for hiring more women faculty, for special programs for women. This is the institutional response to the lack of a critical mass.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

18. Critical Mass & People-Friendliness
In the absence of gender-related comments by students, can we conclude that applied units have solved the problem?
One response might be that the applied fields have reached a critical mass of women (>15%) so these issues are less important or indeed disappear. In CS, because the numbers are few, such programming is more critical and gains more attention from students.
For applied fields, where critical mass may have been reached, issues like pleasing and safe spaces in which to work, community-building, opportunities for group work, and most importantly faculty recognition may be the non-gendered strategies for people-friendliness.
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

19. Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007
Sources
Cuny, J. & Aspray, W. (2002) “Recruitment and Retention of Women Graduate Students in Compiuter Science & Engineering: Results of a Workshop Organized by CRA,” SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2):
Gabbert, P. & Meeker, P. H. (2002) “Support Communities for Women in Computing,” SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2): 62-22
Hanks, K. (2007) “What Do IT Program Websites Reveal about Woman Friendliness?,” ITWF
Herring, S.C. & Marken, J. (2007) “Gender Consciousness of IT Students,“ ITWF
Lagesen, V.A. (2007) “The Strength of Numbers: Strategies to Include Women into Computer Science.” Social Studies of Science 37(1): 67-92
Margolis, J. & Fisher, A. (2002) Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing Boston: The MIT Press.
Ogan, C. (2007) “The Only Person who cares: Misperceptions of Mentoring Among Faculty and Students in IT Programs”, ITWF
Roberts, E. et. al, (2002) “Encouraging Women in Computer Science,” SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2):84-88
Townsend, G. C. (2002) “People who Make a Difference: Mentors and Role Models, “ SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2):57-62
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007

20. POPULATION INTERVIEWED
GENDER & DEPARTMENT
NUMBER RESPONSES
FEMALE COMPUTER SCIENCE - UNDERGRADUATE 17
34 CS Women
FEMALE COMPUTER SCIENCE -GRADUATE
FEMALE NON-CS – UNDERGRADUATE 8
47 Non-CS Women
FEMALE NON-CS - GRADUATE 39
MALE COMPUTER SCIENCE- UNDERGRADUATE 10
18 CS Men
MALE COMPUTER SCIENCE – GRADUATE
MALE NON-CS – UNDERGRADUATE
28 Non-CS Men
MALE NON-CS – GRADUATE 20
Gender and IT Education Conference, Indiana University, 2007