Combination of stereotypes and poor reinforcement leads to decrease in number of female computer scientists

Courtesy of Michigan State

The number of women in STEM majors such as engineering and computer science is at an alarming low and continues to decrease. While majors such as biology and animal sciences have reached gender equality, these more technical majors still lag behind. In 2010, only 18 percent of computer science bachelor’s degrees awarded were to women, while over 50 percent of the general science and engineering degrees were awarded to women.

"Nerd" stereotype of computer scientists deterring women from computer science

This large gender gap can be attributed, in large part, to stereotypes of computer science and engineering majors. In a study done in 2003 by a group of professors at the University of Wisconsin, they determined that these often incorrect stereotypes about computer science majors often attributes to women not choosing these majors.

During their study, they received responses that linked computer science majors to being "nerds" and very intelligent but lacking interpersonal skills. This stereotype is often linked to women’s incorrect belief that men have a higher GPA in computer science.

This has all led to a lack of women in the technical workplace. According to the Department for Professional Employees, while other fields such as law have increased their number of women by over 4 percent, computing fields decreased by over 2 percent. All this happened despite there being an addition of over eight hundred thousand of computing-related jobs since 2003.

               
Part of this stereotype also relates to an intimidation factor that comes from the very intelligent nature of many computer science and engineering majors. In the graph above, a direct correlation between average IQ of majors and percentage of female majors can be seen.

In general, people are unlikely to chose to be among the minority of anything, especially something like a college major, where they would be stuck with the same people for four or more years. This is clearly evident in the data provided, with most women choosing majors such as early childhood education that is less male dominated and intimidating.

Guidance counselors not providing necessary reinforcement for young women in computing

Another large issue for women is the lack of reinforcement early in their academic careers. Often times if a female is struggling or does not want to take a computer class, their guidance counselors and teachers offer little to no resistance to these girls dropping out or not taking of these classes, says Dr. Jandelyn Plane, director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing at the University of Maryland. 

                                            

While a male student with these problems may be told to stick with it or to just try it, the same is not true with women. "[Guidance counselors] still tell girls they don't need to take these classes, that's okay" Plane says.

This all comes back to the previously mentioned stereotypes. These stereotypes ascend past just students choosing majors, and make it all the way up to these guidance counselors and parents. Their beliefs are that computer science is a major for men and that if there is no point in attempting to change a young girls’ interests while boys are pushed to take these classes, because it is "just something they do".

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UMD Professor Uses Packard Fellowship to Fund Earthscope; an initiative to map seismic activity

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Vedran Lekic is creating a map that will not only cover all 48 contiguous states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, but also dive deep into the Earth’s crust and core.
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Lekic’s research is based on ground vibration recordings, which he and his students use to detect the scattering of seismic waves across the North American tectonic plate. In conjunction with the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope Facility network, the data is collected from the 49 states and Puerto Rico and makes up about 3.8 million square miles, Lekic said.

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Lekic and William McDonough are attempting to harness that energy to create another way to build a model of the Earth.

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“We are both interested in the energy that moves the tectonic plates and creates the magnetic shield around the planet,” geology professor William McDonough said. 

Packard Fellowship Awards $875,000 to Strongest Researcher

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In recognition of his efforts to integrate computer science and geological studies, Lekic joined the ranks of 17 other early career U.S. scientists and engineers who were awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering last week. 

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Lekic is now one of five alumni faculty members who have received the award while at this university, and he will be given access to unrestricted funds of $875,000 over a five-year period to support his extensive research on Earth’s inner structure. 

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“If you look at the field of those who get it and try to figure out from their research summaries and letters which are the strongest candidate, it’s a difficult task,” said Franklin Orr, chairman of the Packard Fellowship panel. “We always run out of fellowships before we run out of wonderful people to give them too.”

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“The great thing about this fellowship is its flexibility to go chase a really good idea to wherever it leads,” said Orr, a Stanford University professor. “It is an incredibly valuable fund and gives the researchers an opportunity to take off with a good idea instead of waiting a year or more for federal money.”

Seismic Activity Allows Lekic to View Inner Workings of the Earth

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Now that a large fund has been granted to his work, he hopes to spend more time plotting the seismic information in graphs and models so that he may better understand the Earth, Lekic said. 

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“What we do is comparable to how an ultrasound let’s us see through our bodies,” Lekic said. “But this lets us see through the Earth.”

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Lekic has already used the seismic information to investigate why and how the crust moves over the Earth’s mantle. As of now, the deepest any machine has been able to dig was about 12 kilometers into the Earth’s crust, a minuscle fracture of the roughly 6,730 kilometers it takes to get to the Earth’s core. Using the seismic information helps geologists see the shapes and sizes of the Earth’s layers. 

Vedran Lekic is a Frontrunner in the field of Geoscience

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Other than his seismology research contributions, Lekic is also a forerunner in the new geological field of neutrino geoscience. 

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Neutrinos are a type of electrically neutral subatomic particle that are created during radioactive decay or some kinds of nuclear reactions. The particle, which was only discovered geologically in 2005 and physically detected for the first time last year, moves through every kind of object, McDonough said. 

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“It sounds magical; it’s like a particle that exists but you can’t really see,” Lekic said of neutrinos. 

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As a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkley, Lekic formulated higher-resolution images of the Earth’s mantle structure, stemming from his creation of a global seismic velocity model. Not only is the model able to give geologists a better understanding of plate tectonics, but it also helps explain the movement of continental plates and their evolution, Lekic said. 

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Lekic has received several other early career awards besides the Packard Fellowship.