Men's Interest Section at Barnes and Noble: Girls Not Allowed?

I was browsing at a Barnes & Noble in Charlotte, N.C. this weekend and was surprised when I looked up to see that I was in the "Men's Interest" section.  Is this the message the bookseller wants to give to half of its potential customers?  


I don't think it was intentional.  It was just one of many subtle- and not-so-subtle - reminders that our society has a long way to go to encourage females, of any age, to consider computing and related technical fields of work and study.


Although women have made inroads in fields such as law and medicine, this is not true for many technical fields.  According to a thoughtful article written by Rane Johnson-Stempson, of Microsoft Research, a study by the Computing Research Association indicated that female students were only 14% of computer science graduates in the U.S. in 2011.  The under-representation of women in computer science and related technical fields in 2012 continues to be a problem, on many levels. 
RELATED
Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing was published about ten years ago. The book was an outgrowth of the research of Allan Fisher and Jane Margolis, of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and is still worth reading.



Getting more women into computer science
Connie Glasser, Atlanta Business Journal, 5/11/12
"Just when we need every available gifted mind to help business recover from the Great Recession, we can't afford to overlook the contributions that women could make if CS environments were more inclusive."




Addressing the Need for More Women in Computer Science Programs
Rane Johnson-Stempson, Microsoft Research Connections Team, 2/3/12


Breaking the Brogrammer Code: Margo Seltzer's View on Women in Computer Science
Morgen E. Peck, Txchnologist, 6/27/12



Marissa Mayer on Women in Tech: CNET's CES 2012 Panel (January, 2012)
"Right now it is a good time for women to be in tech, but there are not a lot of women in tech..."



Giving Women the Access Code
Katie Hafner, New York Times, 4/2/12


Percent of Bachelors going to Women: Not getting better among Computing Disciplines
Computing Education Blog, 5/11/12

Presentation: Unlocking the Clubhouse:  Developing Software Education and Practices for Diverse Beginners, Jen Myers, 11/19/11

Unlocking the Clubhouse: Developing Software Education and Practices for Diverse Beginners from Jen Myers

Why are there so few women in Computer Science?
A Syster, Best of Systers Blog, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology


Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

National Center for Women and Information Technology

Quirky, Fun Webisode from Dot Diva (a website that encourages young women to pursue careers in technology)

I've been looking over my enormous archive of links and resources for this blog and thought I'd share some of the things that I planned on posting, but never did.  I have small collection of resources from organizations that provide support for young women who are preparing for careers in computing and related technological fields.


The Dot Diva website is part of the New Image for Computing (NIC) initiative, a joint effort between the Association for Computing (ACM), Sandhandle Workshops/SandBlast! DBG, and WGBH.  According to promotional information, "Dot Diva's mission is to create an exciting and positive image of computing for high school girls. Our nationwide survey revealed that not only do the majority of girls think of computing as "boring" and "hard," but they believe it fails to deliver two crucial benefits: "working with others" and "making a difference in other people's lives." Our ultimate goal is to transform this negative perception." 


In the following video, two young women apply for jobs working at a mostly-male video game company.  They both are hired and the viewer is presented with some interesting characters and interactions.  The video makes light fun of all sorts of people in order to convey some important messages:


Dot Diva, The Webisode



More about Dot Diva:




RELATED
Dot Diva Resources
Dot Diva Resources for Educators and Parents
New Image for Computing press release (2008)
ACM-W Women in Computing


Info from the Image of Computing website:
Taskforce 
Director, Jill Ross, Image of Computing Task Force
Co-Chair, Rick Rashid, Sr. VP Research, Microsoft
Co-Chair, Dr. James Foley, Georgia Institute of Technology and Past Board Chair, CRA
Microsoft Corporation, www.microsoft.com
Hewlett Packard, www.hp.com
Intel Corporation, www.intel.com
CRA, Computing Research Association, www.cra.org
ACM, Association of Computing Machinery, www.acm.org
SIAM, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, www.siam.org
IEEE-CS, www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs
USENIX, www.usenix.org
NCWIT National Center for Women in Information Technology, www.ncwit.org
ATLAS Institute, www.colorado.edu/ATLAS/
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, www.aaai.org