Geeks Drive Girls Out of Computer Science

[PingSpike]

Maybe they're looking at this backwards. Maybe there just aren't enough hot guys in CS to attract the ladies. I mean, I know the only reason I took Pyschology as an elective in college was because it was loaded with chicks.

 

[acheron]

shit, geeks almost drove me out of computer science, and I am one.

also:

Male perhaps, but that's far from the same thing as masculine.

definition of masculine: 1. pertaining to or characteristic of a man or men: masculine attire. So yes, it is the same thing.

 

[dainthomas]

In other news, stereotypes about nursing driving males away from the profession.

I need a five million dollar grant to study this fascinating theory.

 

[clamum]

Yes, because any self respecting school would have the computer labs plastered with Star Trek photos and video games. :/

Our labs are new (less than 2 years old) and they are probably more aesthetically sterile than any of the other science labs.

That's what I thought. I don't see any Star Trek posters and sci-fi shit in my office here. The study is kinda dumb IMO.

 

[bobross419]

That's what I thought. I don't see any Star Trek posters and sci-fi shit in my office here. The study is kinda dumb IMO.

I have a webcam on my desk... it looks kind of like the Death Star...

 

[Genx87]

Chicks dont like dorks and Star Trek? Color me surprised!

 

[Farang]

This study is horseshit. How many women do you see entering math-intensive study in general? In my experience very few. The hardest majors that are going to have women in them are the biological sciences. Women don't have as much of an expectation put on them to be breadwinners so they major in shit like philosophy because they know after they're done banging frat dudes for 4 years they can marry the dork CS major and get him to buy her a Lexus.

Anyway that's what I've heard from female art majors, social work majors, etc.

 

[QueBert]

The guy who plays Moss on The IT Crowd is almost perfect as an uber geek. Only thing missing is he doesn't harass females, but his cluelessness when it comes to females is spot on.

 

[Pepsei]

reminds me of this

 

[hanoverphist]

am i the only one that immediately thought of "bend over, ill drive" when reading the title?

 

[destrekor]

It goes both ways.


The "field" is driving most SANE people away.

honestly, this was kind of my view, well... it drove me away because I didn't want the stress of the computers, not the environment it was in. Though I do get tired of being around most computer geeks anyhow. I made a small group of friends in my CCNA program at my highschool, still best friends with them, but a lot of IT people can make me uncomfortable. But I have met people like my friends and then it's just a hilarious time.

Sadly, I'm trying to get back into the career field, and I have NO idea how the hell I'm going to do that. I am almost finished with what is basically a "Homeland Security Major" (International Studies: Security and Intelligence... was created after the Department of Homeland Security pushed for courses at major universities), versus doing anything computer related.

I'll be a PL in a Signal Co for the Army Reserve, hopefully I can use that to try and get an entry level civilian job relating to IT in some way, Federal position if at all possible.

 

[destrekor]

This study is horseshit. How many women do you see entering math-intensive study in general? In my experience very few. The hardest majors that are going to have women in them are the biological sciences. Women don't have as much of an expectation put on them to be breadwinners so they major in shit like philosophy because they know after they're done banging frat dudes for 4 years they can marry the dork CS major and get him to buy her a Lexus.

Anyway that's what I've heard from female art majors, social work majors, etc.

it's also natural for men to more often choose the field. Not because of the imagery, but because of the work.

It's problem-solving in a complicated light. A task far more suited to the more commonly male brain. It's not necessarily "rare" for women to have the same brain structure, and those that do are the women who go into similar career fields. Similarly, it's not rare for a male to have a characteristically "female" brain structure, and for them to go into careers that make better use of those structural features. The "male brain" is scientifically proven to be better suited for complex problem-solving, it's our evolutionary history and is what got us here, and completely agrees with my theory that problem-solving is how we rose up from cave/tree dwelling primates to where we are now, but I digress.
There are also a lot of people in the middle, featuring characteristics of both male and female brain structures, these people honestly have it made because they can work into every aspect of society when they have the right work-ethic.

 

[rockyct]

All of that nerdy culture stuff happens outside of the classroom, so I'm not sure what the point was really. My math classes were all bare and the science classes had science posters and decor. It was even more bare in college except for the professors which sometimes had dorky engineering posters in their office.

Geeks may very well be driving away girls, but it's not happening with posters. If anything, I think that the media is driving the idea of tech majors all being socially outcast nerds.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Haha that is funny. Makes sense though.

I would have no clue what to even say to a girl in any given situation and probably screw up but I can code my way out of any situation.

 

[ShawnD1]

Geeks may very well be driving away girls, but it's not happening with posters. If anything, I think that the media is driving the idea of tech majors all being socially outcast nerds.

I don't think this is a problem. Geeky women get along with geeky men.

 

[zephyrprime]

Honestly, if chicks are turned off by something as minor as some nerd paraphernalia, they don't got the stomach for the field anyway.

 

[DangerAardvark]

Does not help that a lot of guys that do go in those field have no skills with women and just end up sexually harassing them.
My wife and every woman she has worked with at IBM has stories. Some funny and some kinda scary. Even married guys try shit. My wife went to lunch with 1 guy and his major player skill was while driving back to the office just said “I want to have sex with you…” My wife, being the woman she is, just pointed her finger at him and said YOU BEHAVE!!!.

That's pretty baller. At least he didn't try the classic line "please touch my penis".

 

[bobross419]

Maybe they just get self conscious when we all start giggling when the professor comes in and says: "There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't"

 

[thomsbrain]

Wait, being a geek is considered masculine now?

Rejoice!

 

[hanoverphist]

Maybe they just get self conscious when we all start giggling when the professor comes in and says: "There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't"

we have that and another sign that says "oct31 == dec25" on the door here. most people dont get either one.

 

[DangerAardvark]

I can't remember the last time a man took my order at a restaurant or fast food place. Maybe 1/10 cashiers I meet are men. Damn, women are driving men away from the lucrative field of giving exact change.

 

[DangerAardvark]

I don't think this is a problem. Geeky women get along with geeky men.

Unfortunately the ratio is 10-1.

 

[ShawnD1]

Unfortunately the ratio (geeky men to women) is 10-1.

http://www.kimberlyswygert.com/archives/002589.html

On average, women perform better on verbal tests, while men demonstrate greater visual-spatial capabilities, and these differences are more striking at both the lower and upper extremes of intellectual ability. Boys outnumber girls in remedial reading classes — by large ratios, in most studies — but they are even likelier to outnumber girls among the most gifted in math and science. In one Johns Hopkins University study of gifted pre-adolescent students, boys outperformed girls among the top scoring students on math by 13-to-1.

Mystery solved.

 

[frostedflakes]

Some engineering majors are pretty bad as well. I think electrical engineering at my school is maybe 5-10% female. And I don't think EEs are quite as stereotypically geeky as CS guys.

I wonder how much of a cultural thing it is, though. Seems like among the foreign grad students and stuff, female to male ratio is higher.

 

[CountZero]

Isn't it more likely that being geeky drives people into these majors? I mean if you are into sci-fi and video games then CS, engineering and the sciences are kind of natural extensions of interests you already have.

As to the study if you think of geekiness as a scale between 0-100 instead of all or nothing I'd hazard to guess that the average man that isn't a CS major still falls higher on the geek scale than the average woman. So even a man that isn't overtly geeky will have less issue with geeky things than the average woman.