Why more women aren't "geeks"
Stefanie Olsen writes in the C|Net News Science Blog:
Where are all the women who forsake social outings to stay up all night writing computer code and read science fiction?
Most of those computer "geeks" (as the stereotype goes) live in countries that mandate math and science courses through the teenage years.
That's one of the conclusions of a new study exploring the gender gap in computer science, a profession dominated by men. Professors of sociology at the University of California at San Diego and Western Washington released a study Friday that showed that women are vastly underrepresented in computer science in 21 nations--Germany, Czech Republic and Belgium being among the top countries with few women in tech.
That is because those as well as most countries are influenced by the notion that men and women are naturally suited to different occupations. But what's different is that their schools do not require curriculum in math and science, and therefore encourage fulfilling those roles, according to the findings.
In South Korea, a nation with the highest number of women in computer science, math must be studied through 12th grade, and science through 11th. Ireland, Sweden, Turkey and the United States were also among nations with the highest penetration of women in technology.
posted by Fergie @ 8/12/2005 06:07:00 PM
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