CAPSTONE Outline

Caroline Fagan
Purpose: to bring more women into the computer science field by proving capability in the
subject
I.

II.

III.

Introduction
a. Lack of women in computer science
b. Juxtaposition of a lot of jobs and few people to fill them
c. Society plays a big role
i. Women feel discouraged/incapable
d. Thesis: Women share new perspectives that could be invaluable to the computer
science industry. However, these ideas can only be harnessed if society starts to
nurture females into the belief that they are just as good at math and science as
boys are.
Gender Stereotypes
a. Men are best at math and science while women are best at English and history
b. Stereotypical career paths by gender
i. Women go into nursing and teaching
ii. Many have the desire to help others ** (connect later in motivation)
c. Social identity threat: women want to stick to the norm and follow the path of
other women in their careers and lifestyles
i. Lack of self-esteem lowers their career goals (Becoming a Computer
Scientist)
ii. Social identity threat is defined as a threat that occurs when people
recognize they may be devalued in a setting because of one of their social
identities (Murphy).
1. This is experienced when people feel they are being treated
negatively or [are] devalued in a setting simply because of a
particular social identity they hold (Murphy).
iii. Study: Men and women who were equally capable in math, science, and
engineering were separated to watch gender balanced and gender
unbalanced videos for a MSE conference. Afterwards, they were asked if
they felt they belonged at the conference. The men had no significant
difference in responses (expected) while the women who watched the
gender unbalanced videos had a much smaller sense of belonging than
those who watched the balanced video (Murphy).
d. Stay-at-home mom
i. Hard to balance family and career (Becoming a Computer Scientist)
e. Biased treatment in education (teachers)
f. Biased treatment at home (parents)
i. Mothers tend to underestimate the mathematical abilities of their sixthgrade daughters and overestimate the math abilities of their sons (Quinn)
Computer Science Stereotypes
a. Schema: geeky man with glasses no one thinks of women

IV.

V.

i. Connect to thoughts of a teacher as a woman

ii. Male who is unattractive, pale and thin, and wearing glasses (Cheryan
2013).
iii. Taken together, the image of a computer scientist that emerges in the U.S.
is one of a genius male computer hacker who spends a great deal of time
alone on the computer, has an inadequate social life, and enjoys hobbies
involving science fiction (Cheryan 2013).
b. Work on computers all day long
c. Isolated with little human interaction
i. Many people believe that computer scientists have strong interests in
programming and little interest in people (Cheryan 2013).
ii. Women are less likely to want to be a loner.
d. You have to be meant to be a computer scientist, born coding or dream in
code (Cheryan 2013).
e. Computer science often requires late night working in computer labs. It is
dangerous for women to be out in the dark at nightmight contribute to the lack
of women in computer science (Becoming a Computer Scientist).
Why Women are Capable/Why they Should be Computer Scientists
a. High pay opportunities
b. **Helping others: computers control everyones lives, so this subject has the
biggest range of helping others
c. High demand for jobs
d. College programs
Conclusion
a. The world could be more advanced in technology if more women entered the field
of computer science