In her essay “How to be a ‘Woman Programmer’” in The New York Times, Ellen Ullman discusses her experience with being a woman in computer science and programming. Ullman shares some challenges she has come to face while working her way through a male dominated career field. Although Ullman discusses the challenges of women in the computer programming field, she gives strategies she uses to keep moving towards a better career. Ullman stated in her essay how she often gets asked in her career not how one learns to code but rather how a woman learns how to code. Catherine Hill wrote, “Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures the association between two concepts to determine attitudes about different social groups…the gender-science IAT measures
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When Ullman referenced this quote from one of her bosses it shows that men do not value women as much in some working environments. Eliana Dockterman stated in her essay in Time magazine, “educators are trying to understand how to engage girls in computer science early and why so few of them stick with it-even though they outpace boys in most other subjects,” (Dockterman, 2014). This means that many educators do not know how to keep girls interested in a ‘not attractive’ field of study for them. Most girls did not grow up playing with games that helped them learn these types of skills. Girls get math anxiety the most obvious answer to why girls do not get into this field often. But it is also the least defensible answer because women receive almost half of the undergraduate degrees in mathematics. In 1970, well before the women’s movement, women actually received 40% of the mathematics undergraduate …show more content…
Hill wrote, “growth mindset benefits girls” (Hill, n.d). A growth mindset is when you believe your intelligence can be developed. Having a “fixed mindset” does not allow you to grow and learn more as an adult. Having a “growth mindset” allows women to learn more about the math and science that goes into computer science and programming. If a woman has a “fixed mindset” then she will give up on programming when she cannot learn something new and therefore helping the gender gap grow. De Palma stated, “A report from the American Association of University Women says that women account for only 17% of the high school students who take advanced placement exams in computer science and earn only 28% of the undergraduate degrees,” (De Palma, 2001, p. 27). Girls tend to drop out of classes if their grade falls below a “B+”. That does not give them the opportunity to fail, or the willingness to fail. When one is creating a code, or programming a computer they must try many different variations of a certain code to get it right. Giving up when your grade drops below a “B+” does not set you up for
When Ullman referenced this quote from one of her bosses it shows that men do not value women as much in some working environments. Eliana Dockterman stated in her essay in Time magazine, “educators are trying to understand how to engage girls in computer science early and why so few of them stick with it-even though they outpace boys in most other subjects,” (Dockterman, 2014). This means that many educators do not know how to keep girls interested in a ‘not attractive’ field of study for them. Most girls did not grow up playing with games that helped them learn these types of skills. Girls get math anxiety the most obvious answer to why girls do not get into this field often. But it is also the least defensible answer because women receive almost half of the undergraduate degrees in mathematics. In 1970, well before the women’s movement, women actually received 40% of the mathematics undergraduate …show more content…
Hill wrote, “growth mindset benefits girls” (Hill, n.d). A growth mindset is when you believe your intelligence can be developed. Having a “fixed mindset” does not allow you to grow and learn more as an adult. Having a “growth mindset” allows women to learn more about the math and science that goes into computer science and programming. If a woman has a “fixed mindset” then she will give up on programming when she cannot learn something new and therefore helping the gender gap grow. De Palma stated, “A report from the American Association of University Women says that women account for only 17% of the high school students who take advanced placement exams in computer science and earn only 28% of the undergraduate degrees,” (De Palma, 2001, p. 27). Girls tend to drop out of classes if their grade falls below a “B+”. That does not give them the opportunity to fail, or the willingness to fail. When one is creating a code, or programming a computer they must try many different variations of a certain code to get it right. Giving up when your grade drops below a “B+” does not set you up for