April 19, 2007 Women in CS blah de blah de blah
The New York Times recently ran this article about the ways universities are starting to change their CS programs to attract more women, including restructuring the degrees to put less initial focus on programming skills. And of course, some of the usual suspects at Slashdot were up in arms about how these schools were “watering down” their CS degrees and “making them meaningless” as a result.
I agree that schools should not dumb down their programs to attract more women. That does absolutely nothing to benefit either women or men. But I don’t think that’s what these schools are really doing. They’re not dumbing down their programs, they’re restructuring them to provide motivation to women (and men) who might not otherwise be drawn to CS.
Let me illustrate what I mean. I didn’t start a CS degree at Cornell because I liked programming all that much, to be honest with you. I started a CS degree because I liked art, and I looked around and saw all of the really interesting, new, and creative forms of art that were developing used the computer as a medium. So I started a CS degree to learn a tool so that I could make art.
(Later I switched to Information Science because it was more in line with my interest in applications of tech, while CS at Cornell is very theoretical.)
Nowadays I’d like to think that I’m a competent (though out-of-practice) programmer, and I rather enjoy programming sometimes. There’s something satisfying about understanding how things work. And there’s something very satisfying about having an idea and knowing that you yourself can bring it into existence. (That’s what both programming and art are, after all.)
Anyway, the point is that I learned to program in the first place because I had some other motivation. Only later did I start to like it for its own sake. And I think that the same might be true for many other women in tech.
That’s the point behind the changes these schools are making — that it’s important to learn how to program, yes, but here’s why you should care in the first place, given that you’re an intelligent, creative, curious human being. And having more intelligent, creative, curious human beings busy using computers to do wonderful things could only benefit all genders, in the long run.
You speak with insight on this topic. While I’m not a CS person in any regard- though I would like to know more about programing languages and so forth so as to use the “tool,” as you say, I know people who are better at it, more interested in it and far more capable of the numbers game than me. (But, I’ve noticed that the department here is a major sausage fest and does tend to coddle the women that are starting to make their way more and more into the program- at least that’s the impression I get from the friends I have in the CS program here. Heck I play D&D with a few of them every week over in East Engineering, and one of my best friends is in his post-graduate studies doing some rather interesting things, and robotics. (Well, his deal was MATH, but he also does computers).
Anyway, I am reminded of why I got into Anthropology (or even why I started off trying to do Journalism) in the first place. I am rather afraid that the university here, despite New College, puts up a bit too many barriers between specializations and so forth, but hey, if you want a degree in something- specialize and concentrate on something and you’ll be more likely to get recognized. I’m tempted to stay here longer, though I really want to finish up as soon as possible, if not for any other reason than to take the Paleopathology class with Jacobi (But I’ll have to partner up with an Osteology person to keep up) and to utilize the Library for my numerous peripheral interests.
A big part of my skill set is my desire to work with Cameras and Images as well as People, culture, nutrition, etc. I’ve had a hard time shaking the parts of me that are poetic, empathetic and even the archivist part of me. I take pictures and I want to and usually do take good pictures, but I get carried away while I’m taking pictures and camera slinging that I forget to pay attention to details that would guarantee the high contrast good composition images with proper weight…or that sort of breakdown happens when I do printing in the darkroom (which I adore, it is my favorite thing about working with film other than producing images in the first place).
I’ve found myself less dissuaded from personal style in writing poetry and thinking, especially since Blount encourages liberal arts thought experiments and exploration, but I’ve grown in my appreciation of tools used to get the job done, that specialization- however much I want to dabble in this or that- is the way of the world, at least the expected way.
I prefer “No way as way.” But hey, that’s just because I admire Bruce Lee, not the best reason to take up a mutable philosophy, but if it works…
When I finish up this semester I’ll start on the road to post-graduate studies…finally. I wouldn’t mind going into the workforce or getting my hands on experience more, but I’ll do what I have to and want more training and want to do more research.
I’m looking at University of Florida, University of Oregon, staying at U of A, UAB and UK respectively. (hell, I might even try to get out of the us and go to the U.K. but I doubt that, I don’t like the camera deal going on there, but Scotland might get somewhere with their independence push…)
Anyway, do get back to me, sorry about my last message (rather how I ended it and rambled a bit), I was a little…emotional? I don’t expect anything less no matter how deadpan or nonchalant I’ve been about death lately (I got over it), I’m still bothered on a few levels by the deaths of friends and family.
Comment by Andrew — May 4, 2007 @ 7:33 am