do something useful with their skills in order to contribute to the social good.

Institutional Support Is Critical

We believe sustained student leadership, with women at the helm, has been critical for building a more inclusive community at CMU, and for enhancing the academic and social life of the entire community. At the same time, cultural change requires serious institutional support and cannot be left to chance, especially in a stubbornly male-dominated field like CS.

At CMU, we have found that institutional investment, providing funding, guidance, and endorsement for programs developed through Women@ SCS, has paid off. The organization has become a valuable resource for everyone while strengthening the image of women in CS and challenging the stereotypes about who fits the field.

Cultural Factors Are More
Important than Gender Differences

Gender difference approaches often argue that there are strong gender differences in the way girls and boys, or men and women, relate to the field; gender differences that work in favor of men and against women. To solve this problem and increase women’s participation in CS it is suggested that we need to pay more attention to women’s interests and attitudes and change CS accordingly. But approaches that recommend accommodating differences—without recognizing that such differences can change according to the culture and environment—risk perpetuating the gender divide.

This has not been our approach.
Indeed, we questioned these assump-
tions and constraints. Gender is first
and foremost a cultural issue not a
women’s issue, so rather than looking
at “gender differences” as our working
model we need to address the underly-
ing culture in which attitudes and op-
portunities for equality are influenced
and situated. This approach is sup-
ported by evidence from other cultures
outside the U.S. Galpin describes the
participation of women in undergrad-
uate computing in more than 30 coun-
tries concluding “(t)he reasons that
women choose to study computing will
vary from culture to culture, and from
country to country.” Studies of women
in computing in Mauritius and in Ma-
laysia found no problem with women’s
participation concluding “the under-
representation of women in CS is not a
universal problem.” 9

But the gender difference mindset—epitomized by the bestseller Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus10—has a strong hold on public thinking in the U.S. and many parts of the Western world. For example, “… anonymous, aggregate data from Google searches suggests that contemporary American parents are far more likely to want their boys smart and their girls skinny.” 13 The belief that men are innately better at coding than women, is a case in point. This mindset, fed by stereotypes, is relentlessly perpetuated. In turn stereotypes feed our unconscious biases, which, if left unchecked, can often lead to negative consequences for women in computing, and ultimately for the field itself.

Cultural Interventions
Are Needed for Change

We see culture as a dynamic process; shaping and being shaped by those who occupy it, in a synergistic diffusive process. A cultural approach examines a range of factors beyond gender as determinants of women’s participation in CS including (but not limited to) the parts played by the K– 12 curriculum, stereotype threat, opportunities for engagement in CS, opportunities for leadership, confidence levels, gender ratios, implicit bias, myths and stereotypes. A cultural approach examines these factors and develops actions and programs to intervene as

We see culture as
a dynamic process;
shaping and being
shaped by those
who occupy it,
in a synergistic
diffusive process.

needed. Our latest intervention— Bias-Busters@CMU—developed in collaboration with CMU’s College of Engineering and Google, works with the entire campus on the difficult issue of mitigating implicit bias. 8

Interventions from Women@SCS have increased the visibility of women, placing them in leadership positions, providing opportunities for them to demonstrate their abilities, and to challenge stereotypes, all with the critical support of our deans, faculty and staff. For example, recognizing an often-familiar situation in which students can go through their entire school life without having a female instructor, Women@SCS developed a faculty-student lunch series, providing female students an opportunity to meet role models and have personal interactions in an informal setting. Most importantly Women@SCS has not been inward-looking. The organization has facilitated many outside the classroom programs for the benefit of the entire student body such as peer-to-peer interview and speaking skills workshops, outreach in the community, and peer-to-peer advice sessions. In 2014, Women@SCS was asked to take the lead on SCS4ALL—http:// www.scs4all.cs.cm u.edu/—a student organization reaching out beyond gender. Women@SCS has shown that a women’s organization can be much more than a “support” group for each other, they can be a valuable resource for building an inclusive community.

Conclusion

We have found that cultural change, not curriculum change (often recommended by gender-difference approaches), is the key to sustaining a community of women in CS. Indeed, we advise caution when making changes based on appealing to stereotypes— this may perpetuate the gender divide.

Institutional support is also critical for real change and ultimate success— this includes funding, guidance, and philosophical advocacy for leveling the playing field. CMU has not been afraid to give women a voice, to listen to women, and let women take the lead, enabling them to play a valuable role in changing the culture.

We suggest monitoring student attitudes toward, and experiences in, the