Toward improving female retention in the computer science major

The article focuses on conditions affecting female retention in undergraduate computer science. Results reported here demonstrate that female underrepresentation in computer science could be avoided. Women can and do succeed in computer science when conditions do not deter them. The variation that occurs in women's participation rates demonstrates that many women succeed as computer scientists in certain times and settings. The discipline characteristic and the departmental characteristic are the main reason for the cause. To strengthen confidence in results of this study, it employed three research methods to form a consensus of findings. The methods employed were qualitative analysis of interview data, discipline comparisons of quantitative survey data, and statistical analyses of computer science survey data. This investigation of Virginia's Computer Science departments offers strong evidence that the characteristics and practices of computer science departments affect female retention at the undergraduate level. The departmental factors that affect gendered attrition are the availability of same-sex peer support; faculty characteristics and behaviors, and institutional and community environment. This article argued that inherent female characteristics are an insufficient explanation of women's underrepresentation in computer science.