More Women in Computer Science (Current Events 5)

At Stanford University, only about 21% of undergraduate CS majors are women, in spite of the fact that the first two CS classes taught there have an equal gender ratio. This may be due to the male-dominated culture of computer science at Stanford or the fact that women don't hear about the CS major early on in their college careers. To counter this trend, Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni founded the group she++ to provide community and support for women pursuing tech careers. More women in computer science should be beneficial for companies who need more CS talent and for the US as a whole, since the demand for computer scientists is growing but the US has fewer CS graduates than many other countries. In class, the idea was raised that gender parity in computer science isn't something that we should be worried about, due to what the Family Proclamation says about men being mainly providers and women being mainly nurturers. However, research has shown that all-male teams tend to experience negative outcomes compared to other teams (see Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing). Plus, it hardly seems fair to assume that our LDS ideas about gender and gender roles should be imposed on people who don't share our beliefs. If people want to encourage more women to be in the workforce and it appears to be benefiting society, then they should do so.