Double Isolation: Social Pressure and Gender Disparities in Computer Science

2010年，女性获得了所有科学本科学位的一半左右;但在同一年，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少的领域之一，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妇女的态度和背景上（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，对妇女能力的负面成见）。这项工作将侧重于妇女在选择学术领域方面的经验中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是否较低，因为她们预计进入一个刻板印象中的男性领域会受到负面评价。目前吸引女孩进入男性占主导地位的领域的干预措施通常侧重于改变妇女（例如，提供计算经验）。这里提出的研究表明，女性可能会放弃重要的STEM学习机会，因为她们感受到的社会压力。然而，相对简单的变化，教育环境可能能够“关闭”这种社会压力，并增加妇女的兴趣在计算机science.The目前的工作开发和测试的理论模型，确定妇女的社会压力的来源和这种社会压力的后果对妇女的兴趣和性能在计算机科学。为了验证这一理论，研究人员将在第一年进行两次调查，并在第一年至第三年进行七次行为实验。在第一年，重点将是女性是否在计算机科学方面比男性感受到更多的社会压力，而在其他领域（例如，英语），以及社会压力对计算机科学兴趣和表现的影响。在第二年，研究将探讨如何通过使用私人学习机制和扩大陈规定型观念来减少社会压力。在第三年，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对女性的社会压力，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.