"'Women in Computing' As Problematic": A Summary

I've long been interested in why, despite so much organized effort, there percentage of women in CS has been so stagnant. One hypothesis I had for some time was that the efforts themselves were unintentionally counter-productive: that they reinforced the gender subtyping of "female computer scientist" being separate from unmarked "computer scientists".

I was excited earlier this week when Siobhan Stevenson alerted me to this unpublished thesis from OISE: "Women in Computing as Problematic" by Susan Michele Sturman (2009).

In 2005-6, Sturman conducted an institutional ethnography of the graduate CS programmes at two research-intensive universities in Ontario. In institutional ethnography, one starts by "reading up": identifying those who have the least power and interviewing them about their everyday experiences. From what the interviews reveal, the researcher then goes on to interview those identified as having power over the initial participants.

Interested in studying graduate-level computer science education, she started with female graduate students. This led her to the women in computing lunches and events, interviewing faculty members and administrators at those two universities. She also attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) and analysed the texts and experiences she had there. Her goal was to understand the "women in computing" culture.

In the style of science studies scholars like Bruno Latour, Sturman comes to the organized women in computing culture as an outsider. As a social scientist, she sees things differently: "Women in the field wonder what it is about women and women's lives that keeps them from doing science, and feminists ask what it is about science that leads to social exclusion for women and other marginalized groups" 

On the Social Psychology of Sexism

As somebody interested in gender equality in CS, one thing that's proved quite illuminating for me is to read up on the psychology of sexism. Why does sexism persist in society? What social and psychological structures keep it in place?

Sexism in some ways is unlike other forms of discrimination. When it comes to race, or class, or disability, the social psychology literature will frequently talk about social distance. But when it comes to women, men "can't live without 'em" [1] -- and so things tend to be a bit different.

Ambivalent Sexism

It turns out that sexism has two faces: good old hostile sexism -- and the more palatable benevolent sexism. Benevolent sexism is the notion that women are wonderful, caring, nurturing and beautiful creatures -- and so must be protected and provided for. (Note the "creatures" -- not "people".)

The evidence on the psychology of sexism is that the people who espouse hostile sexism are also benevolently sexist. They think women shouldn't work -- women should stay home and care for the children because women are so good at mothering. And they get hostile when their regressive worldview clashes with attempts of women and men to change the status quo.

Furthermore, the more you're exposed to benevolent sexism, the more likely you are to later take on hostile sexist views. The more you're primed to believe that women should fill the magical-traditional role, the more likely you'll try to thwart any attempt to move away from this view.

A vital thing to note about benevolent sexism is how frequently it is embraced by women. Many women will argue that women are better at being nurturing, or communicating, etc. After all, why would you turn down a worldview that argues you're wonderful and worthy of protection?