A recent ACM study concluded that there is still a major gap between how teenage girls and boys view computers and careers in computer science. The nationwide ACM survey of college-bound high school students age 13 to 17 found that 45 percent of boys thought majoring in computer science would be “very good” while only 10 percent of girls shared that viewpoint. There were also major disparities when asked about different technical tasks, such as learning a new software program, setting up a wireless network, or editing music or video on a computer, with boys consistently giving more confident responses than girls. “Using technology doesn’t necessarily enhance your idea of creating technology,” says Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology president Telle Whitney. “If you think about how you think about your car, it kind of makes sense. I think many girls are like that.” In the ACM study, when asked to do a word association based on computers, boys responded with words like design, games, and video, while girls responded with words like boring, hard, and nerd. “As long as teenagers believe that computer science is boring, difficult, anti-social, or doesn’t have much impact on solving the world’s problems, they’re unlikely to choose it for their future,” the study says. Whitney says the Borg Institute is working to change these misconceptions among young women by arguing that computer skills are necessary for success in a world that is increasingly dominated by technology. Whitney believes that much of the change will come from establishing mentoring programs so girls can find successful role models in the technology industry. “One of our messages is that you can like pink and you can like princesses and still be good at programming a computer,” she says.
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