IT / Portrayals are deterring girls from studying computer science

The stereotype of the male computer geek is a staple of modern television and film – prime examples include the British sitcom The IT Crowd and the US TV hit The Big Bang Theory. But there are growing fears that such portrayals are deterring girls from studying computer science.

“You see it in the media so much that computer programmers are nerdy boys,” says Dame Wendy Hall, one of the world’s leading computer science experts. She points to the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, as another example, with Ben Whishaw’s Q depicted as the “geek with the glasses”.

Research published last month in the US journal Sex Roles argues that computer science still has a “nerdy” image problem. The study led by Sapna Cheryan, assistant professor in psychology at the University of Washington, found that women are more likely to be affected by the image of computer scientists presented in the media than men.

Cheryan and her team conclude that drawing more attention to “counter stereotypical” figures such as Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo!, could increase female interest in the subject.

Hall, professor of computer science at the University of Southampton and creator of a forerunner to the World Wide Web, says that despite considerable efforts there has been little change. “We still have this major problem of the culture we have that makes being a computer programmer something that girls don’t want to do.

“It’s those crucial early teenage years when we switch girls off…Sometimes I do despair and I do think we’ll never change it.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via How to switch on the IT girls | News | Times Higher Education.