OWLS : OWLS Outfitting Women Leaders in the Sciences Meghan Burke, Mathematics
Martha Myers, CSIS
Sherri Shade, CSIS
Amy Woszczynski, CSIS
Nancy Zumoff, Mathematics Stepping up to the Plate in Diversity Education, April 25-26, 2003
Agenda : Agenda Background
Mathematics perspectives
IT perspectives
OWLS project
Discussion
Fast Facts : Fast Facts More than 50% of all undergraduate students in US are female.
Women make up 46% of the workforce, but only 12% of the US scientists.
Women’s representation in undergraduate CS programs has fallen from 37% in 1984 to around 20% today.
Pipeline Issues : Pipeline Issues Boys and girls have similar mathematics and science proficiency scores at age 9.
A gender gap in science proficiency scores begins to appear at age 13.
Men score higher than women on the SAT mathematics and science Achievement Tests.
Among recent college graduates who majored in the natural sciences, women earned less than men did. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97982.html
Root Causes : Root Causes Experience gap
Confidence doubts
Curriculum and pedagogy
Peer culture
Hostile environment
KSU Facts : KSU Facts 64% of undergraduate degrees awarded fall 2002 went to women.
30% of science degrees went to women.
Mathematics : Mathematics Failure in mathematics can be a barrier to success in any of the science fields
The ratio of women in mathematics has increased through the 20th century, but very gradually
Men still outnumber women as mathematics majors at most institutions
Mathematics at KSU : Mathematics at KSU Women make up about 50% of graduating mathematics majors at KSU
Success due to:
42% of tenure-track faculty are women
Nurturing environment (see NSF report, 1998 and Talking About Leaving)
Ease of scheduling courses, day or evening
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Slide9 : 1945: First electronic tube goes live – all 6 programmers were women.
Gender Inequity in IT : Gender Inequity in IT Number of women in undergraduate computer studies has decreased from 37% of in 1984 to 20% in 1999 (Kellogg 2001)
Only 15% of Ph.D. degrees in the computing sciences awarded to women in 1996 (Carver 1999)
When women do enroll in IT-related fields, they leave the computer science program at twice the rate of males (Margolis et al. 2001)
Fewer than 25% of the IT workforce is female.
Only 11% of students taking the AP CS test were female.
Why So Few Women in IT? : Why So Few Women in IT? Women sometimes feel that questions are too “stupid” to ask male professors or male teaching assistants (Blum 2001; Margolis et al. 2001).
Women tend to be attracted to fields with significant numbers of female teaching assistants and professors (von Hellens and Nielsen 2001).
What Can We Do to Encourage Women in IT? : What Can We Do to Encourage Women in IT? Do females simply lack the aptitude to succeed in IT fields?
Make classrooms more gender friendly, including actively encouraging participation from both sexes (Brown University 1996)
Encourage professor involvement (Hewitt and Seymour 1992; Scientific American 1998) and mentoring at the undergraduate (Didion 1996) as well as the graduate level (Holgate 2000)
Carnegie Mellon Big Sister/Little Sister Program pairs first and second year computer science majors with upper-level women computer science majors (Blum 2001; Cohoon 2001)
Slide13 : If, as theory suggests, women do not fail to achieve IT degrees due to technical incompetence or lack of desire, how then can we as IT educators increase the success of females in the IT pipeline?
Why should you care? : Why should you care? Earning opportunities for women
Better science and technology
Different questions and solutions
Other?
OWLS Goals : OWLS Goals To increase the number of women students who graduate with a degree in STEM fields:
biology
chemistry
computer science
information systems
mathematics
To increase the number of women who continue with careers in these fields after graduation
OWLS Objectives : OWLS Objectives increase the number of women students declaring a major in STEM fields
increase the number of women who graduate in STEM fields;
increase the number of women who continue with jobs or graduate studies in STEM fields;
establish a sustainable mentoring network of new women students, continuing women students, faculty and women working in STEM fields
OWLS Project Components : OWLS Project Components KSU 1101 Freshman Experience (for entering students)
Faculty mentors (for participating students)
Mentoring activities (for all participating students)
ongoing support
community environment
KSU 4401 Senior Experience
OWLS Faculty : OWLS Faculty