A trend which some clever analytical research people (you know, the ones who seem to float around departments not actually doing anything ever) have identified is that a high proportion of female computing undergraduates come from single sex schools. Oooh I fit that trend too! I'm so unoriginal. Having been to one I can confirm that the teaching environment in them tends to emphasize that girls can do absolutely anything they want in life and have any career imaginable (no they don't tend to advocate anything exotic like stripping), the husband, the kids, the house, hamster and 12 goldfish out in the perfect ornamental pond in the perfect garden which the gorgeous gardener tends to topless in nice tight jeans and still have time to take an evening pottery class darling. Along side the rose tinted view of the world, female schools seem to do a better job of telling girls that it's ok to go and do a "geeky" and "male orientated" degree than mixed schools who blindly shove boys and girls along opposite career paths. I'm generalizing of course. There might be a few enlightened career advisors out there. But even so, the problem lies in the curriculum as well.

Currently, the UK National Curriculum allows something ridiculous like an hour a week of compulsory Information Technology on the timetable for kids aged 11-16. Assuming the schools have the facilities to provide that of course. (I wouldn't quote me on that however. Life is too short to be delving through government documents on lesson time requirements. But in my experience it feels about right! I suppose I could've asked a teacher but like I said, life is too short.) In mixed schools, the focus tends to be on the males in all technical subjects such as electronics and graphics, and the girls don't get a look in. This has to be a factor in the lack of female CS students. If they're not inspired at a young age by a subject, it's unlikely they'll study it at a higher level.

Another problem area is the image of the computing industry as a whole. Women see IT as inherently male orientated and sexist. Well, this isn't entirely true. In my experience I've been accepted readily by male colleagues once they realize I know what I'm doing. Any opposition I've had to deal with has generally been from the pale, photophobic, potbellied stick men who haven't a clue how to deal with any female, never mind one who wanders around with pens stuck in her hair at odd angles, high on caffeine (the programmer's friend), mumbling snippets of code to herself in between games of minesweeper and trying to improve her latest paper aeroplane design. Really must stop with the planes. I go through reams of paper when stuck inside recursive algorithms in my head. Terrible waste. Women are accepted and are taken seriously as long as they don't fall into the role of office slut (there's always one!) and prove they know the technologies they say they do.

The image problem isn't something that's going to go away, particularly with the low numbers of female graduates entering technical jobs and rising up the ranks. Lack of role models is a point of contention. Well known industry leaders tend to be middle aged, geeky, slightly tubby, pale men with glasses, *cough* Bill Gates *cough* The recent appointment of a female CEO at Hewlett Packard is a step in the right direction for us girlies but unfortunately I doubt many young girls have ever heard of Carleton S. Fiorina.

Until we see some rising companies with women founders appearing in the general public's rather narrow field of vision, a 50/50 male female split in every major IT corporation's workforce or a major overhaul of how girls are introduced to computing at school, I don't see young girls abandoning their blonde, anorexic pop idols in favour of today's hidden Ada Lovelaces. Until then, high heeled footprints on the industrial green and beige flooring of university computing departments around the country are likely to remain a rarity and queues in the girls' toilets non-existent.

Lorna Pickford - Feel free to mail me.
Second Year Undergraduate
BSc (Hons) Computer Science with a Year in Industry
University of Kent at Canterbury.

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