>But a lot of computing pioneers, the ones who programmed the first digital computers, were women. And for decades, the number of women in computer science was growing. But in 1984, something changed. The number of women in computer science flattened, and then plunged.
Those statistics kind of refute those lamenting male culture etc for the lack of more women in computer science.
One would imagine the 1969-1984 that the graph shows, the "male culture", bro attitudes, etc were far more imposing that they are in the milenial, PC environments of today. We're talking about the seventies to early eighties, after all!
And yet, there were more women back then than they are now.
(Always suspected the usual explanations weren't the reason. It's not like medicine, law school, finance, etc have much better male cultures than computer science).
Those statistics kind of refute those lamenting male culture etc for the lack of more women in computer science.
One would imagine the 1969-1984 that the graph shows, the "male culture", bro attitudes, etc were far more imposing that they are in the milenial, PC environments of today. We're talking about the seventies to early eighties, after all!
And yet, there were more women back then than they are now.
(Always suspected the usual explanations weren't the reason. It's not like medicine, law school, finance, etc have much better male cultures than computer science).