Gender Codes: Why Women Are Leaving Computing

by Thomas J. Misa (editor)

The computing profession faces a serious gender crisis. Today, fewer women enter computing than anytime in the past 25 years. This book provides an unprecedented look at the history of women and men in computing, detailing how the computing profession emerged and matured, and how the field became male coded. Women's experiences working in offices, education, libraries, programming, and government are examined for clues on how and where women succeeded―and where they struggled. It also provides a unique international dimension with studies examining the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, Norway, and Greece. Scholars in history, gender/women's studies, and science and technology studies, as well as department chairs and hiring directors will find this volume illuminating.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Technology, Gender, Stem, Coding

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Georgia Martine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a woman in tech I felt angry reading this history, but I'm not surprised by the information. It covered countries outside of the US which I appreciate because many of the resources I read on the tech industry generally tend to be US-focused, which is like another planet compared to Europe.

I'm only giving this 4 stars as I'm not sure I agree with the conclusion that the nerd culture is not driving women out of tech. The nerd culture is immature, pervasive, creepy, hostile, rationalised by pseudo-intellectuality, and yet managers let these people dictate the hiring practises which thus fuels the expectation that we spend all our spare time programming until we become an "asocial, malodorous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater"** because obsessiveness is the signifier of technical prowess, apparently. It's like a cult. Don't even get me started on the totalitarian dictatorship of Scrum.

I like that it is a collection of research by different people. I especially enjoyed chapter 11 "Programming Enterprise" which focused on the success stories of various female software developers.

**my favourite quote in the book.

[Fanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative read on the rise and subsequent decline of women in the broader field of computer science. Poses interesting questions and provides potential/ provisional answers to the question: Why are women leaving computing? Good overview of historical changes and cultural influences; however, the book doesn’t delve very deeply into gender theory.

[S.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with great references at the end of each chapter. Each chapter is a new discussion by a new author giving the added advantage of progressing through the book non-sequentially. Must read for anyone in computer science!