Double Isolation: Social Pressure and Gender Disparities in Computer Science

2010年，女性获得了大约一半的理科本科学位；然而在同一年，女性获得的计算机科学学位不到20%。计算机科学仍然是STEM领域中性别多样性最低的领域之一，也是最不受变化影响的领域之一。目前解释这种差异的理论通常集中在女性的态度和背景（例如，较低的信心，缺乏先决条件）或该领域的不受欢迎的气氛（例如，对女性能力的负面刻板印象）。这项工作将侧重于女性在选择学术领域时被忽视的一个组成部分：来自同龄人的社会压力，以掩盖对该领域的兴趣。具体来说，这项研究将调查女性对计算机科学的兴趣减少是否因为她们预期进入一个刻板的男性领域会受到负面评价。目前吸引女孩进入男性主导领域的干预措施通常侧重于改变妇女（例如，提供计算机经验）。这里提出的研究表明，由于她们感受到的社会压力，女性可能会在尝试之前放弃STEM领域的重要学习机会。然而，教育环境的相对简单的改变可能会“关闭”这种社会压力，增加女性对计算机科学的兴趣。目前的工作开发并测试了一个理论模型，该模型确定了女性社会压力的来源，以及这种社会压力对女性在计算机科学方面的兴趣和表现的影响。为了验证这一理论，研究人员将在一年级进行两次调查，在一到三年级进行七次行为实验。在第一年，重点将放在女性是否在计算机科学领域比男性感受到更多的社会压力，而在其他领域（如英语）则没有，以及感知到的社会压力对计算机科学兴趣和表现的影响。在二年级，研究将探讨如何通过使用私人学习机制和扩大刻板印象来减少社会压力。在三年级，研究人员将与计算机科学教师协会合作，在多所高中进行大规模的实地实验，测试接触与朋友一起描绘的女性计算机科学榜样是否会减少女性感受到的社会压力，并增加她们对计算机科学的兴趣。

In 2010, women earned about half of all science undergraduate degrees; yet in the same year, women earned less than 20% of computer science degrees. Computer science remains one of the least gender diverse of the STEM fields and one of the most impervious to change. Current theories that explain this disparity typically focus on women's attitudes and backgrounds (e.g., lower confidence, lack of prerequisites) or the unwelcoming climate of the field (e.g., negative stereotypes about women's abilities). This work will focus on an overlooked component of women's experience in the selection of an academic field: social pressure from peers to conceal an interest in the field. Specifically, the research will investigate whether women express less interest in computer science because they anticipate negative judgment for entering a stereotypically masculine field. Current interventions to draw girls into male-dominated fields typically focus on changing women (e.g., providing computing experience). The research proposed here suggests that women may be forsaking important learning opportunities in STEM before trying them because of the social pressure they perceive. However, relatively simple changes to educational environments may be able to "turn off" this social pressure and increase women's interest in computer science.The current work develops and tests a theoretical model that identifies the sources of social pressure on women and the consequences of this social pressure on women's interest and performance in computer science. To test the theory, researchers will conduct two surveys in Year 1 and seven behavioral experiments in Years 1 to 3. In Year 1, the focus will be on whether women perceive more social pressure than men in computer science but not in other fields (e.g., English), and the effects of perceived social pressure on interest and performance in computer science. In Year 2, the research will examine how to reduce social pressure by using private learning mechanisms and broadening stereotypes. In Year 3, the researchers will partner with the Computer Science Teachers Association to conduct a large-scale field experiment across multiple high schools that tests whether exposure to female computer science role models who are portrayed with their friends reduces perceived social pressure on women and increases their interest in computer science.