When
1 – 2 p.m., Feb. 25, 2025
Where
I'm hosting the first Slice of the semester next week on Tuesday, February, 25th from 1pm-2pm in PAS 236. The topic will be centered around this 2019 NYT article, "The Secret History of Women in Coding" by Joseph C. Towler, Jr.
Why this article: I found this interesting because computer science has nearly a worse gender gap than physics, but it wasn't always that way. This article goes through how gender norms initially encouraged women to go into computer science until it was seen as a "man's job" in the 1980s, how the field remained in a cycle of being male dominated for decades, and then how retention efforts in computer science departments at universities were able to bridge the gap by intervention in the first year "weed out classes" that disproportionately weeded out women and minorities. It also goes into current issues that still affect computer science's culture and how it can actively deter women from the field.
This Slice of PIE is like a book club, and anyone is welcome to attend and have good faith discussion. There will be light refreshments provided; bring a friend! :-)
Hope to see you there!
Bri Billingsley
PIE President