Putting Women in their Place

My Salient feature about the gender imbalance in computer science is out - Putting Women in their Place. Obviously, it's focused on the specific situation of VUW, but it should be relevant in a more general context. A lot of people I talked to mentioned to me that they felt the lack of female role models was a significant reason for girls' lack of interest, which is a shame because there are many brilliant women out there leading the field. Is it just that we web designers and programmers don't seem to fit an image of rock-star cool or respectability in the eyes of young people, especially young women? This is an important issue, one that could have a seriously damaging effect both in terms of our public credibility, and in terms of the quality of the work we produce, so I'm really pleased to see that others are starting to take notice. From my perspective, I think the best way forward is to start transforming the way that computing and engineering are presented in schools, with the idea that computer science isn't just about computers, it's about patterns and processes.