Gender Codes: Why Women Are Leaving Computing

A fresh, constructive examination of the gender imbalance in computer education and technology
The computing profession is facing a serious gender crisis. Women are abandoning the computing field at an alarming rate. Fewer are entering the profession than anytime in the past twenty-five years, while too many are leaving the field in mid-career. With a maximum of insight and a minimum of jargon, Gender Codes explains the complex social and cultural processes at work in gender and computing today. Edited by Thomas Misa and featuring a Foreword by Linda Shafer, Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Press, this insightful collection of essays explores the persisting gender imbalance in computing and presents a clear course of action for turning things around.
Through engaging historical accounts, Gender Codes tells the stories of women programmers, systems analysts, managers, and IT executives who flooded this initially attractive field in the 1960s and '70s. It celebrates their notable successes in all segments of the industry. The book then examines why, while most other science and technology fields have seen steady growth in the number of female participants, the computing field experienced just the opposite.
Providing a unique international perspective, the contributors to this unprecedented volume reveal how computing has become male-coded, highlighting the struggles women have faced in the office, the media, and in culture at large. The book assesses the existing intervention strategies and pinpoints why they are not working and what can—and must—be done to stall the exodus.
Gender Codes will resonate with female professionals in computing, engineering, and the sciences; with scholars and educators in history, gender/women's studies, and science and technology; with deans, department chairs, center directors, and those in industry and government with hiring responsibilities; and with staff and executives at foundations and funding agencies.

THOMAS J. MISA is at the University of Minnesota, where he directs the Charles Babbage Institute, teaches in the graduate program for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, and is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Foreword.
Preface.
Contributors.
PART I: TOOLS FOR UNDERSTANDING.
1 Gender Codes.
Defining the Problem (Thomas J. Misa).
2 Computer Science.
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Caroline Clarke Hayes).
3 Masculinity and the Machine Man.
Gender in the History of Data Processing (Thomas Haigh).
PART II: INSTITUTIONAL LIFE.
4 A Gendered Job Carousel.
Employment Effects of Computer Automation (Corinna Schlombs).
5 Meritocracy and Feminization in Conflict.
Computerization in the British Government (Marie Hicks).
6 Making Programming Masculine (Nathan Ensmenger).
7 Gender and Computing in the Push-Button Library (Greg Downey).
PART III: MEDIA AND CULTURE.
8 Cultural Perceptions of Computers in Norway 1980–2007.
From "Anybody" Via "Male Experts" to "Everybody" (Hilde G. Corneliussen).
9 Constructing Gender and Technology in Advertising Images.
Feminine and Masculine Computer Parts (Aristotle Tympas, Hara Konsta, Theodore Lekkas, and Serkan Karas).
PART IV: WOMEN IN COMPUTING.
10 The Pleasure Paradox.
Bridging the Gap Between Popular Images of Computing and Women’s Historical Experiences (Janet Abbate).
11 Programming Enterprise.
Women Entrepreneurs in Software and Computer Services (Jeffrey R. Yost).
12 Gender Codes.
Lessons from History (Thomas J. Misa).
13 Gender Codes.
Prospects for Change (Caroline Clarke Hayes).
Bibliography.
Index.