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Closing the computer science gender gap: how one woman is making a difference in many lives (1131 hits)

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June 8, 2015 6.16am EDT

The number of women receiving undergraduate degrees in computer science has plummeted by 40% in the last 20 years. How can this be changed? Ask Maria Klawe.

Author

Maria Klawe

President at Harvey Mudd College

I’ve been passionate about increasing women’s participation in computer science for more than 25 years. While the number of undergraduate women pursuing some STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields like biology and chemistry has steadily increased over the past couple of decades, women’s participation in computer science (CS) has actually been declining.

Indeed, within the last 20 years the percentage of undergraduate women who received CS degrees plummeted by almost 40%. According to the National Science Foundation, in 1995, 29% of bachelor’s degrees in CS were awarded to women; by 2012, the most recent year for which NSF data is available, only 18% of CS undergraduates were women.

More: https://theconversation.com/closing-the-computer-science-gender-gap-how-one-woman-is-making-a-difference-in-many-lives-41422