RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF WOMEN IN COMPUTER SCIENCE ENGINEERING

摘要

Today, an important issue in academics is the need to increase the participation of women in engineering and science. It is well known that women are significantly underrepresented in the scientific fields of the world, and computer science is no exception. The percentage of female graduates in our Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department is 2.2% while the national average percentage of Bachelor's degrees in computer science which was granted to females in 2007-2008 is 11.8%. Clearly, the representation of women in our Computer Science program is far lower than the national average. There are several reasons for attracting women to computer science, including the fact that more than 50% of consumers are women. If those designing products are able to relate to the female section of the population, there is a better chance of selling the products. Industry needs women designers. In addition, female perspectives can be very useful in improving the work environment. Women excel in verbal and interpersonal skills and are very good collaborators. This paper presents the study of different approaches that are used by different colleges and universities for recruiting and retaining women in computing. This paper also addresses the low enrollment in our computer science department and the reason that our female enrollment is lower than the national average and how we should go about fixing this issue.