[Edu-sig] Why Women Avoid Computer Science

[Brent Burley]

There's an interesting opinion piece in this month's Communications of
the ACM by Paul De Palma, a professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane,
WA.  His theory is that young men are attracted to the tinkering,
hobbyist aspects of programming and that these same aspects and the
ill-defined nature of computing drive young women away.  Paul points out
in contrast that women have always received a significant percentage of
undergraduate math degrees and suggests that if programming were taught
in the same manner as mathematics, more women would be attracted to it.

Paul recommends keeping things simple and as close to pure logic as
possible and keeping programs short and focused on determinate problems
similar to math exercises.  He also suggests that choice of programming
language is insignificant and that it should only be treated as a
notational system.  (On this last point, I expect a lot of you would
disagree).

	Brent Burley