Why has women's participation in computer science declined over the past thirty five years? Many different reasons have been proposed: the advent of home computers computer games that focus on competition rather than collaboration social discourses that code computers as masculine, just to name a few. In fact, computer science's gender gap has actually increased since 1984: In some professional fields, such as law, medicine, and the physical sciences, the gender gap has decreased. Such numbers are more than a little disheartening, especially for those who like to believe that gender discrimination is far less of a problem in the workplace than it was 50 years ago, or even 20. The only room during the conference that had more women, he tells me, was the one in which the "Women in Tech" breakout session was held. Two out of 19 on stage during three general session meetings. That number is always preceded by a much smaller figure: the number of women in each room. Whenever my significant other, a tech geek who does advanced computer development and research work, attends an academic or commercial conference, he likes to text me the number of people in the audience at each workshop or presentation he attends.
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