By Olivia Woodhouse
Lots of things are different in Canada, but one thing that isn’t the male bias in computer science. After discovering a love for coding at the beginning of her degree, Olivia also discovered the Computing Boy’s Club. She tells us her own experience of studying the science of the future, and why you should study it too.
Computer science was never even a blip on my radar. I hadn’t even considered the subject until my mother convinced me to take an introductory course as an elective at my university. In fact, my initial major concentration was in political science and women’s studies. Computer science came completely out of left field. After that first course, however, I was hooked. I found the ability to create and understand such complex technology utterly empowering.
Computer science accesses a completely new way of thinking. I was shocked that I had never been introduced to even the basics of computer technology, especially given the fact that computers are so influential in this day and age. Being in a field with comparatively such little history and such uncertain future is daunting. Computer science is not like most fields of which are ingrained into us from grade school on. It’s not intuitive. This provokes a vast knowledge gap in the subject, even at the university level.
Some kids have been playing around with operating systems since grade school, and others, like me, can’t tell you what Linux is until they reach university. For context, Linux is the mac daddy of operating systems. It was the very first open sourced software to ever exist. 80% of the smartphone market and the bulk of the internet’s framework uses a Linux-type model. Perspectively, the impact of it today is huge. I, however, had never heard of it before my second year at uni.
This knowledge gap is part of the reason computer scientists are in such high demand. It’s not exactly an easy subject to dive into if you’re late to the game. In the case of women and minorities, education and involvement in technological subjects is not widely encouraged in younger years. I, myself, did not officially decide to stick with computer science until this year. By that I mean that I was fully prepared to change subject when it got too difficult. This was not because I didn’t enjoy what I was studying or I felt the work was too challenging for me. Ultimately, it was because I felt constantly discouraged by the people in my courses.
In class, I find myself surrounded by men. Most of which are cisgendered, white or Asian, and rather privileged. The atmosphere in these courses is often pompous and competitive. There was no one there to explain material that was glossed over by the professor. Many of the basics were expected of us to already know. I, of course, had no previous knowledge of any of these fundamentals. It seemed everyone had been coding for years and were in a competition to one-up each other, whereas I was just starting out.
Having put in a lot of my own time to catch up, I finally feel more comfortable in my studies. I now find the demographics of my concentration empowering. The overwhelming number of eager men in my classes just empowers me to work even harder. It took me a long time to get here and it’s no wonder there’s a huge gender inequality within computer related fields. With no one to idolise and a swarm of men to go up against, it can seem utterly impossible to be a woman in computer science. If I had never taken that introductory course on a whim, I most definitely would not have ever thought to explore the subject.
Having now acquired a skill set that enables me to understand the basic functionality of computer technology, it seems even more absurd to me that there is no urgency for even fundamental computer related education at lower levels. The progression of technology is very real and very impactful. Many of us are slowly developing internet addictions and globalisation is changing nations across the world, and yet, we do not question why computer science is not a core topic of education. If the subject matter is made more accessible to people, this vast knowledge gap and inequality within computer related fields will be far more likely to improve.
I feel that it is very important that we start encouraging women to explore computer related education. Computers are quite literally changing the world and women can offer a different voice in these fields that are so impactful on our society. The lack of interest I had for computer education prior to university was completely because of its inaccessibility to me. If one class was able to change my life, it makes me wonder how other women could be affected by an introduction to computer science education.