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Comment by mpweiher | Hacker News Reader

> uniquely low; it is rivaled only by physics and MechE for gender disparity.

So it is not, in fact, "uniquely" low. It is about the same as other engineering. Hmm...maybe because it is like other engineering?

> Whatever is keeping women to 20% of our field is artificial, and a travesty.

You claim without a shred of evidence, while poo-pooing the actual evidence to the contrary.

It is a simple fact that most people regardless of gender aren't interested in computer science, girls just even less than boys.

See for example: https://erzaehlmirnix.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/unterschie...

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https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when...

I mean, it looks like an artificial phenomenon.

> it looks like an artificial phenomenon.

Yes. But to a large part that's because it is specifically presented as such.

For example, the graph in the episode looks very damning. However, it is an extract, arguably in order for it to look as damning as possible. Here's a more complete version of the same:

http://www.randalolson.com/wp-content/uploads/percent-bachel...

Hmm...now it's not nearly as lopsided as that extract. First, there are all these subjects that are at least as and actually even more lopsided than CS, and dominated by women. In fact, more fields are dominated by women than by men (which has to be the case because there are more women in universities). But that doesn't fit the narrative, so out they go.

And of course the CS curve approaches the general engineering curve. Hmmm...maybe that's because CS is a lot like general engineering. So maybe the outlier is not the end of that curve (where CS approaches engineering), but the beginning of the curve?

I've always thought it's because early computing was very similar to data entry/accounting.

http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/researcher-reveals-how-...

> Rather, managers hired women because they expected programming to be a low-skill clerical function, akin to filing, typing, or telephone switching. Assuming that the real “brain work” in electronic computing would be limited to the hardware side, managers reserved these tasks for male engineers.

That's exactly right. Male engagement in computer science and programming sky rocketed with the Advent of personal computers, while female engagement didn't change much.

The drop in women in computer science seems to follow the rise of home computers in the 1980s, which, as far as I know, were more popular among men/boys.

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