“New Image for Computing” recently released a report in their first wave to understand the image of computing among youth.
Funded by WGBH and ACM, this report examines both race/ethnicity and
sex-based differences in perceptions of computing. What they found was
that there is little race/ethnicity-based differences in how youth
perceive CS but there are HUGE gender based differences in perception.
While 67% of all boys rated computer science as a “very good” or
“good” career choice, only 9% of girls rated it “very good” and 17% as
“good.” Digging down deeper, it is fascinating to note that there’s a
gender gap between boys and girls when it comes to feeling that “being
passionate about your job” is “extremely important” (F: 78%, M: 64%),
“earning a high salary” is “extremely important” (F: 39%, M: 50%), and
“having the power to do good and doing work that makes a difference” is
“extremely important” (F: 56%, M: 47%). These all play into how these
youth perceive computer science and computing-driven fields.
The summary of key findings is:
- Most college-bound males, regardless of race/ethnicity,
have a positive opinion of computing and computer science as a career
or a possible major.
- College-bound females are significantly less interested than
boys are in computing; girls associate computing with typing, math, and
boredom.
- College-bound African American and Hispanic teens, regardless
of gender, are more likely than their white peers to be interested in
computing, although for girls the overall interest is extremely low.
- Teens interested in studying computer science associate
computing with words like “video games,” “design,” “electronics,”
“solving problems,” and “interesting.”
- The strongest positive driver towards computer science or an
openness to a career in computing is “having the power to create and
discover new things.”
Computer science is still dominated by men. The computer industry is
still dominated by men. In order to combat these issues, we need to get
to the crux of the issue.
We need to address both the perception of
computing as well as the very real issues that young people raise
regarding the realities of life in the computing industry. For more
information, check out the full report.
(Image source: 4.bp.blogspot)
