Re:The power of role models
by tzs on Saturday February 25, 2017 @04:34PM
(#13733970)
There was a relative peak in the number of women CS graduates in 1985, then a decline over the next ten years, then it started increasing hitting a new peak in 2002 which was larger than the 1985 peak. Then it started declining again until 2008 and then started going up a bit. The data I've got stops at 2011.
Men also have a similar shape curve, just with everything bigger.
It's most useful is to look at the fraction that are women. That rose steadily until about 1985, reaching about 38%, then over the next four years fell to just under 30%. It then was pretty flat until about 2002, then over the next four years fell to about 20% and then flattened again.
That suggests that something happened in a couple specific relatively short timeframes that changed the chances that a women would go into CS or stay in CS.
Men also have a similar shape curve, just with everything bigger.
It's most useful is to look at the fraction that are women. That rose steadily until about 1985, reaching about 38%, then over the next four years fell to just under 30%. It then was pretty flat until about 2002, then over the next four years fell to about 20% and then flattened again.
That suggests that something happened in a couple specific relatively short timeframes that changed the chances that a women would go into CS or stay in CS.
There are some nice charts here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2474991/it-careers/wome...