Increasing the enrollment of women in computer science

Shari Lawrence Pfleeger The precipitous decline in women's enrollment in computer science since 1984 has to be addressed in new and creative ways. We must broaden our horizons and think of our students not only as potential compiler or operating systems designers but also as implementers of computerbased solutions to non-computing problems. There is a general trend, among women as well as men, to want to apply computing skills to a wide variety of disciplines outside the traditional software businesses. (Washington Post, 16 August 2000, Business section, p. 1). We can leverage this interest not by watering down our computer science curricula but by strengthening them and adding internships and team projects that apply skills to these outside disciplines. With such a program, a woman interested in finance might be attracted to a CS degree that enables her to intern at a brokerage house, bank, or insurance company, for example. Thus, we can expand from a degree in computing for computing's sake to computing and its place in the wider world. Such an approach appears to be successful in the UK, where departments of computing offer specializations in computer science, information science, and software engineering, often in partnership with industries that provide internships or support for team projects.