Early exposure, access to rigorous computing classes, and having friends who are also interested in computing go a long way toward getting young women interested in computing.
But personal relationships, reinforcement, and encouragement go even further in helping them persist in computer science fields.
Researchers, who conducted interviews over a three-year period from 2012 to 2015, concluded that having support systems at home, in school, and especially among peers are key to inspiring women to major in computer science.
Read the results of 64 interviews with young women, some of whom persisted in computing and others who did not, in the May/June 2017 issue of Computing in Science & Engineering.
Read article
About Lori Cameron
Lori Cameron is a Senior Writer for the IEEE Computer Society and currently writes regular features for Computer magazine, Computing Edge, and the Computing Now and Magazine Roundup websites. Contact her at l.cameron@computer.org. Follow her on LinkedIn.
