College Women in Math, Science, and Technology

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Recent studies show only 12 percent of science and engineering jobs are held by women, even though they made up 45 percent of the U.S. workforce. Across the nation, college campuses have seen a 9 percent decrease in female computer science majors over the past five years. To The Contrary looks at how two college programs are successfully sending women into the high-tech workforce.

Douglass College of Rutgers University founded the Douglass Project in 1986 to increase the number of young women studying scientific and technological fields. In 1989, Douglass College established the Bunting-Cobb Math, Science, and Engineer Hall for women, the first of its kind in the nation. The program offers undergraduate and graduate women majoring in math, science, and engineering the opportunity live in the same residence hall. The women live together, learn together, study together and continually motivate each other to pursue careers dominated by men. Graduate students living in Bunting-Cobb provide support to undergraduates by coordinating academic-related programs, organizing peer study sessions, mentoring students with similar academic interests, and helping students to reach their academic goals. The program allows undergraduates to serve as lab assistants, leaders of small group discussions, panelists, campus guides, and/or resident assistants during Douglass Science Career Exploration Day, the Douglass Science Weekend Academy, or the Douglass Science Institute Program Series, the summer residential component of the pre-college programs.

Computer technology is one field in which men still pre-dominate: according to a report released last year by the American Association of University Women, women hold only 20 percent of high-tech jobs. Carnegie Mellon University is one of the few institutions to buck a national trend: between the mid-eighties and the late 90s, the percentage of women earning bachelor's degrees in computer science fell from 37% to 27%. To turn things around, Carnegie Mellon has launched an intensive program to help women stay in and excel at computer sciences. A special group provides big-sister mentors, regular support meetings and activities to encourage them to stick with computer science, engineering and related fields. An advocacy group created in 1999, The Women@SCS Advisory Committee, supports women in Carnegie Mellon's school of computer science through social events as well as a website.

At Carnegie Mellon, even with the female increases, men still account for nearly 75 percent of the 553 undergraduates in computer science. According to Peter Lee, associate dean for undergraduate education, only 10 percent of the computer science graduates last spring were female, but given the influx of women, the school expects to see that increase to about 40 percent by 2003 and 2004.

LINKS AND RESOURCES

Douglass College at Rutgers University

Carnegie Mellon University's Women @ SCS Advisory Committee

Women in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering

Women and Mathematics Information Server

Women & Minorities in Math, Science and Technology

Notable Women of Computing and Mathematics