Computer Science
Interview with Stefanie Schmidt
Survey Results
a. Who was tested?
60 St. Norbert College Students (from a wide variety of majors)
- 34 Males
- 26 Females
b. Results / Conclusions
1. Are you confident in your academic skills?
Interestingly enough, about 80-90% of females who answered this question said 'yes, they were.' To compound this, the remaining 10-20% said they were 'somewhat confident.' No females said that they were 'not confident.' However, of the males that answered, about 65-75% said that they 'were confident' and the remaining portion, all but one, answered 'somewhat.' Only one male said that he was 'not confident' in his academic skills. We were very intrigued by this result because, as it stands, there are more females than males enrolled in colleges around the nation, including here at SNC. We believe this statistic is a representative of this fact and believe that it feeds well into question 2 (which, through our analysis, shows that females are also more ambitious in their studies.)
2. Would you say that you are ambitious in your studies?
We found there was an interesting mix of answers to this question. About 60% of students who answered this question replied 'somewhat.' Approximately 35% said that they were indeed ambitious, and only about 1-5% said they were 'not ambitious.' Furthermore, of those who said they were ambitious, the male to female split was not equal; in fact, about 70% female versus about 30% male. This works well with our data collected from question 1.
3. Have you taken a computer science class in high school or in college?
A whopping 82% of students polled have never taken a CS class in their life. Of the small remaining percent that had, about 18% (nearly half) felt they only learned a small amount of information through their courses. Interestingly enough, of the 18% who had ever taken a CS class, only 2 of them were females and they both replied 'somewhat' when asked if they felt they had learned a lot in the classes.
4. Do you feel well informed about the computer science program here at SNC?
An interesting 82% of people polled said they not well informed about the CS program here at SNC. Of those who said they either were 'well informed' or at least 'somewhat well' informed, only a handful were female, a handful being 2, both only 'somewhat.'
5. Do you view computer science courses as being too difficult?
Again, a very interesting statistic. Only 8 people explained computer science courses as being 'too difficult.' Beyond that, 15 said they were 'somewhat difficult.' Leaving a large 35 people who said 'no' when asked this question. This begs the question -- Why aren't more people taking the courses then? This brings up a point of concern. If around 55% of those polled explain computer science courses as not being too hard, and if 82% of those polled explain that they are not well informed about the program here at SNC, then this seems to suggest there is a definite problem with the advertising of our program. Furthermore, on a large scale, this means there is a definite problem with advertising computer science to both men and women in high schools and in colleges across the nation. Granted, of those that answered that CS courses were too hard, the majority were women. However, this again brings up an interesting deduction to be made: there are very few women, through our poll, who have ever taken a CS course or who are well informed about the program. In fact, this points out that maybe CS courses are not too hard, but women, unfortunately, just do not know what is going on in the field.
6. Would you be interested in learning more about this field [computer science]?
To support this conclusion, over 80% said they would be at least 'somewhat interested' in learning more about the CS program here at SNC. This is an important statistic because it shows that there should be more information being passed on to the younger students in high schools and colleges in order to spark interest.
Top7. Does the gender of your professor affect whether or not you take a course that you are not confident in? Please state your preference, male or female.
While most answered 'no' to the first question, of those who answered, females preferred a female teacher to a male teacher in a general ratio of 5:1. We also are slightly disappointed in this statistic for one reason: we feel this statistic is slightly misleading because at the college age, one learns to deal with professors regardless of gender. In many schools, a person is just happy to be enrolled in their desired course. However, we extrapolate that if we were to take a poll of high school freshman, and even down into middle school-aged children, this statistic would shoot up for females preferring female teachers in courses they are unsure of.
8. Do you feel that computer science is a male dominated field?
As suspected, nearly half of those questioned believe the computer science field to be 'male dominated;' 90% believe it to be at least 'somewhat male dominated.' This should attract females shouldn’t it?
9. Do you feel that a degree in computer science would satisfy your professional and personal goals?
Of the females polled, an astounding 13 people answered 'no' to both of those questions. We believe this to have a close correlation with question 10. We are convinced that there is a definite misunderstanding about what it is that computer science majors do. This is our main argument for the low poll answers to both questions. There was only one female who answered 'yes' to either question; she answered 'yes' to the professional goals and 'no' to her personal goals.
10. Do you feel that occupations dealing with computer science involve more desk work than interaction with people?
The answers to this question are not surprising considering the general idea that computer science majors will be stuck behind a desk their whole life. The general trend showed that 50% of people answered 'yes' to this question. Furthermore, only 12% of those polled answered 'no.' This is a huge issue for attracting women to the field. Most women are not all that interested in such jobs. This is a direct connection with the previous conclusion about how the overall public is not well informed about what it is that computer science majors do.
11. Do you enjoy playing video / computer games? At what age did you begin playing them? If you've stopped playing them, at what age did you stop?
The jury is back on this and of course, as expected, only three women answered 'yes.' While there were a decent amount of ladies who responded 'somewhat' (13), the interesting part is that 12 said 'no' they do not enjoy video games. It should not be completely surprising to hear that around 50% of women do not enjoy video games. However, The women who answered 'no' to this question, on a 6:1 ratio answered 'no' to both parts of question 9. This is very interesting because it points out that there is a direct correlation between technology and female disinterest in the technology field. We believe that there is some kind of turn-off to women and technology because they feel that it is male dominated; or in other words, not something that women really do.
12. Do you feel that video games are aimed at a specific gender audience?
Much to our expectations, the vast majority of students polled responded that video games are geared toward the male audience. Only five people (1 male and 4 female) said that the audience was indifferent. Nobody said that video games are aimed at female interest. These statistics support the idea that women get turned away from computers and technology at an early age when males are surrounding themselves with new games and advances. Boys are drawn into a world of technology without even realizing it, so we think that if there are programs geared toward female audiences during the early stages, they might spark an interest and work the same way.