Inquiry Project
How can we increase female participation and retention in computer science courses?
I noticed a pattern while attending technical school in the early 2000’s. In my general subject courses the class demographics were generally split down the middle. These classes would consist of a fairly even distribution of men and women. The computer science courses however, were largely dominated by men. In classes of fifteen or so, perhaps there would be one or two women. Throughout my career I worked on software project after project on teams largely consisting of men. Now that I am teaching technology courses to middle and high school kids, I have noticed this pattern once again. The introductory courses are filled with enthusiastic girls and boys, and both seem generally happy to be learning the material. The follow up courses usually end up full of boys with diminishing numbers of girls. Why do the boys tend to come back for more, while the girls tend to drift away? The fear is that If this trend continues, the gap between men and women in technological fields may never lessen. The purpose of this research is to find the best methods to attract and help keep young women interested in computer science.
