Attracting Women Into Computer Science

Frisky070802 writes "U.S. News & World Report has an article about attracting women into Computer Science. '...That sense of isolation and inadequacy is one reason the number of women earning computer science degrees in this country has plummeted over the past two decades--with women dropping from 37 percent to 28 percent of graduates--at the very moment their presence in other scientific and engineering disciplines has soared. 'You look at the national statistics,' says Rick Rashid, senior vice president of research at Microsoft, 'and you just have to be appalled.'' It describes how some companies have even started summer camps to attract high school girls into high tech."

Don't...

[cwebb1977]

Just don't show them how we use that one-handed keyboard.

Aim a little lower....

[Anonymous Coward]

How about just "Attracting women" for starters....

Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[laserbeak]

Well you know boys, a nuclear reactor is a lot like a woman. You just have to read the manual and press the right button.

Re:HOWTO

[linsys]

Here is a quote from that HOW-TO:

3.3. Don't call people bitches

Using the word "bitch" (and several other words) is derogatory to women, no matter whom the word is referring to. I wouldn't have bothered to include this except that it's apparently not as obvious as I thought, as I have recently heard Linux developers use "bitch" in a serious manner with apparent nonchalance"

YA THINK??

I couldn't stop laughing when I read that...

More informaton please...

[Anonymous Coward]

"...some companies have even started summer camps to attract high school girls into high tech..."

Some? SOME!? Names, addresses and lists of current vacancies for said companies would be more useful...

Re:Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[Yorrike]

Homer : Son, a woman is a lot like a... a refrigerator! They're about six feet tall, 300 pounds. They make ice, and ... um ... Oh, wait a minute. Actually, a woman is more like a beer. They smell good, they look good, you'd step over your own mother just to get one! But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman!

Interpretation...

[Oestergaard]

Attracting women to computer science

Or

Attracting women that are into computer science

You choose. Personally, I find the latter to be the most difficult by far :)

Re:Well gee

[RAMMS+EIN]

Which is why men build machines/gadgets and women break them? /me ducks

Re:HOWTO

[Alranor]

From that HOWTO:

Remember, most women would rather chew off a leg than be rude to a man to his face,

I really want to know what planet whoever wrote this document is from.

Re:Aim a little lower....

[kfg]

Bold, new initiatives like this have to start with small and vaguely achievable steps, so, for starters, just work on not repelling women.

KFG

Re:Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they only explode if they go without a control rod for too long...

Maybe women really are smarter...

[DukeLinux]

Let's see, we want to attrach women into a contracting field field where if you are lucking you have the career lifetime of a sports figure but without the money. So why would any women (or man) want to enter this field again? I am not getting it.

it hurts

[macshit]

Based on my experience, there's really only thing that will work:

Professor Leonardo Dicaprio.

Re:Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[bryhhh]

$ man women
No manual entry for women

D'oh!

Re:HOWTO

[Ohreally_factor]

So you're saying it should be a man page?

Success!

[wiredog]

Several women have recently informed me that I'm not nearly as creepy as I used to be!

Re:Well gee

[D-Cypell]

However, some forward thinking companies [realdoll.com] are beginning to challenge this negative stereotype.

Re:Success!

[teh Wang]

guess you're earning over £70k then...

Re:Aim a little lower....

[fireman sam]

yeah, sure it was tea

Re:WTF

[Anonymous Coward]

You might not have cared at the time, but on later reflection, you must have realized how cool that was. And your insurance paid for it!

Re:HOWTO

[Andrewkov]

I guess we'd better not discuss IRC clients, then...

Re:HOWTO

[the pickle]

thepickle$ man woman

error displaying man page: not enough memory

p

Re:Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[Yorrike]

And to add to that, "bitchx" seems to work fine and gives you screens of people talking and talking and talking : )

Re:Aim a little lower....

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes dear.

Re:HOWTO

[isecore]

well, really it should be a woman page.

Re:HOWTO

[Paulrothrock]

I resent that remark. Saying I have the people skills of a rat assumes that rats have people skills. I, sir, have the people skills of a phicus plant.

Quite simple actually

[adolfojp]

Just tell them that for every woman in CS there are at least 50 men. They might have been geeky and quite possibly rejected in high school, but in college they will be highly coveted and will have a lot of men to choose from. ;-)

And if they still want the jocks, they can wait to get out of college, land a high paying job and then go hunting for the man meat at the grill of the local Mc Donalds back in their hometowns.


Cheers,

Adolfo

Re:Aim a little lower.... OR Rephrase

[CodeMaster]

Am I the only one who glanced at the topic and saw "Attractive woman in Computer Science" ???

Re:Aim a little lower.... OR Rephrase

[TopShelf]

That's just wishful thinking...

Attract?

[borroff]

I believe the more appropriate term is "lure"...

Re:HOWTO

[Arathrael]

...a lot of the men in the field are completely inept individuals with the people skills of a rat?

I would like to say that comparing the inept individuals of the IT field to rats is highly insulting. To the rats.

Speaking as someone who lives with several rats, and as someone who is also only too familiar with the denizens of the IT field (because I'm one of them) I can honestly say that I would prefer to socialise with the rats any day.

I mean, rats don't seem to feel the need to constantly womble over to me and remind me of their complete idiocy, in case I'd forgotten in the few minutes since they previously did it. Rats will sit quietly and lick my fingers. Admittedly I wouldn't want the IT guys to do that, but small furry mammals can get away with it. They both may try to steal my biscuits, but the rats take smaller quantities and seem to appreciate it more. They also both steal my pens and chew on them, but the rats seem to do it less, and can easily be distracted by a small piece of biscuit - and they don't claim they were 'just borrowing it' and accuse me of being overprotective of my stationery. Rats don't laugh/snort at their own bad jokes. Rats don't think that everyone in the world wants to hear their opinion on the latest developments in the Star Trek universe. They also don't think it's more important than anything else I could possibly be doing. And they don't tell me, whatever I'm doing, that I'm doing it wrong. Admittedly rats will occasionally chew through unprotected cables, which isn't something I can say I've seen the IT guys doing. But IT guys will occasionally steal, sorry, 'borrow' the cables, or unplug my computer, or delete my files, etc., so I think that balances out in the rat's favour.

And I can put rats in a cage, and they're not too bothered about it. IT guys complain if I shut them in the closet. Admittedly non-IT people complain about that too though. I should probably stop doing that.

Rats are also cleaner, better groomed, and smell less. A lot less. And I'm not kidding about that.

:-)

Re:HOWTO

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, ho's don't like it when you call them bitches.

Re:HOWTO

[CreatureComfort]

Except that even ficus plants seem to get girls to talk to them...

Actually, I cannot keep my daughter away...

[Canis Lupus]

I am constantly chasing my daughter away from my computer. Of course, she is not quite two and her best trick is to press the power button. Thank god for autosave and journalled filesystems!

Not as easy as we thought....

[MonkeyDancer]

$ man woman
No manual entry for woman

Re:Aim a little lower....

[Rei]

>a) woman largely want to talk about something that interests them, and only them

Yes, because geeky guys *never* do anything like that....

Re:Aim a little lower....

[fritz1968]

She was complaining about our eyes glazing over, not our eyes glaring down at her chest.

otherwise known as eye magnets.

WARNING: Obsessive net-loon

[Anonymous Coward]

You have been trolled. The above AC is an escaped mental patient who devotes considerable time to harrassing some woman because she has a dick. If you think nobody's dumb enough to harass strangers for reasons as idiotic as that, you must be new to Slashdot.

WHAT TO DO:

• Ummm... Jesus, I'm feeding a troll, aren't I? My advice is not to follow my example.