Joanne Cohoon in US News on women in CS

Joanne does wonderful work in understanding the factors that influence women’s participation in CS and STEM more generally.  Great to see her work getting some visibility at the US News website.

Especially at a time when unemployment is high and our economy is weak, we cannot afford to lose anyone with the technical skills to create a sustainable future, improve health, build our cyber and physical infrastructure, and enhance personal and societal security.

A diverse set of minds needs to tackle those problems. But we are largely missing out on women’s intelligence, creativity, and values in solving the problems we all face.

Why is this so?

Evidence continues to mount that capable women in technical fields have less confidence than men that they will be successful. Researchers at Stanford University recently published new findings that women engineering students perform as well as men, but are more likely than men to switch to a different major. These women switch because they don’t believe that their skills are good enough and they don’t feel like they “fit” in engineering.

via Wanted: Technical Women – STEM Education (usnews.com).