A good URL for the NSF statistics:
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/
Also, there's extensive information and analysis about the
educational pipeline in the US (for all groups, and including K12) in
the 2010 American Association of University Women report "Why So Few?"
www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/whysofew.pdf
I'd be interested to learn of studies of the CS workforce outside the
US. Are there recruitment and attrition problems everywhere?
Allison
On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 5:20 AM, Eric Burger
<eburger-l(_at_)standardstrack(_dot_)com> wrote:
NSF has a ton of information on this for the U.S. population. I'm too lazy
right now to dig it up, but it is there.
On May 1, 2012, at 4:40 PM, James M. Polk wrote:
There have been some good numbers floated on recent threads, but at least
for me, they aren't enough to gain a complete (or nearly complete) picture
of the issue.
Having studied statistics, we need to know a starting point, and look for
the reductions (or increases) from that point forward. Starting in high
school is not sufficiently refined enough, as there are a lot that take
advanced math (personally I'd start with trig - because that kicked my ass
- but rarely is it its own class, so let's start with calculus 1) that
don't go into engineering. Thus, high school is probably not a good place
to measure from. Therefore, it needs to be college.
We need to know
% of class (based on year started) that is female in engineering
(do we want to start with electrical and CS to
be more applicable to our situation?)
We'll call that percent 'X'
then
%X of drops from engineering (BS) (or just elec/CS?) over the college years
before graduation?
then
%X that enter workforce after BS in Engineering (or just elec/CS?) into the
engineering field?
then
%X that start graduate school (MS) in engineering (or just elec/CS)?
%X that receive MS degree in engineering (or just elec/CS)?
%X that enter workforce after MS in Engineering (or just elec/CS?) into the
engineering field?
then
%X that start doctoral school (PhD.) in engineering (or just elec/CS)?
%X that achieve PhD. in engineering (or just elec/CS)?
then
%X that enter workforce after PhD in Engineering (or just elec/CS?) into
the engineering field?
This will likely track those that are entering the engineering workforce,
and with what level of education. From that point in the analysis - we can
attempt to track at what point there are further drops out of the
engineering workforce by women (i.e., after how many years). Or is it as
simple as problems after childbirth to reenter the workforce (for whatever
reason).
As an example, if there is a significant difference from those that drop
out after their BS from those that drop out MS, then maybe something should
be done to encourage women to stay for the MS.
comments or questions?
James