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；但同年，女性获得的计算机科学学位还不到20%。计算机科学仍然是STEM领域中性别差异最小的领域之一，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侧重于妇女的态度和背景(例如，信心较低、缺乏先决条件)或该领域不受欢迎的气氛(例如，对妇女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部分：来自同龄人的社会压力，要求其隐瞒对该领域的兴趣。具体地说，这项研究将调查女性是否对计算机科学表现出较少的兴趣，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判断。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，提供计算经验)。这里提出的研究表明，女性在尝试STEM之前可能会放弃重要的学习机会，因为她们感受到了社会压力。然而，对教育环境进行相对简单的改变，可能就能“关闭”这种社会压力，提高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对计算机科学的兴趣和表现的后果。为了验证这一理论，研究人员将在第一年进行两项调查，并在一到三年进行七项行为实验。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交压力，但在其他领域(例如英语)，以及感知到的社会压力对计算机科学的兴趣和表现的影响。在第二年，这项研究将研究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，在多所高中进行一项大规模的实地实验，以测试接触到与朋友一起被描绘成计算机科学榜样的女性是否会减少女性感受到的社会压力，并提高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.