Accounting For The Role Of Policy In The Underrepresentation Of Women In Computer Science

Since the 1990s, a great deal of effort has been toward improving female participation in computing. Yet the numbers in North America haven't budged: women continue to make up 18% of CS majors. Current efforts and research focus on societal, cultural, and psychological reasons for this underrepresentation. I argue that the political dimension also needs to be considered both in terms of why women are underrepresented and how to change it. I have found that admissions policies have a profound effect on how many women study undergraduate CS. I've also observed that diversity is not being considered in mainstream CS department policy making, and "women's issues" are expected to be solved by women's groups. And in the women's spaces, I've observed a focus on individual career advancement ("Lean In") rather than a push for political, collective action.