Tackling the underrepresentation of women in computing and finding novel help in athletics
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
3-10-2020
Abstract
Researchers address the underrepresentation of women in computer science by conducting a four-year longitudinal study to explore the relationships among athletics, personality measures, gender, and performance in Computer Science I (CS1). The study explores personality traits (openness, persistence, and endurance) that enhance women's performance and persistence in both athletics and computer science, according to a literature review. Experimental results show female athletes out-perform (measured by CS1 grades) all other groups: male athletes, male non-athletes, and female non-athletes. The authors report results from statistical analyses to support hypotheses regarding reasons for female athletes' superior performance in CS1. The paper closes with a Future Work section that indicates how the lessons learned from female athletes in computer science might be applied to addressing the underrepresentation of all women in computing.
Recommended Citation
G. C. Townsend, K. J. Stewart and S. Tunguz, "Tackling the Underreprentation of Women in Computing and Finding Novel Help in Athletics," 2020 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), Portland, OR, USA, 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/RESPECT49803.2020.9272420.
