It is not only important, but also fashionable, to talk about the dearth of women in science. Bring up the topic at a cocktail party with the right perspective and you can be the most popular person in the room. But bring it up in the wrong way and you can find yourself backed into a corner, watching more pleasant social interaction from afar.

Your cocktail party success matters to us. We have designed this issue to contribute to your arsenal of primary sources and plausible solutions. Within are a variety of issues related to diversity in computer science—addressing not only women, but also other underrepresented groups—as well as progress of the field as a whole. From implicit bias to concrete factors that contribute to the inclusivity problem facing advanced computing, we have taken a step back to consider how we all can do better.

WHY DOES DIVERSITY MATTER?

When bringing up the topic of diversity, it is important to address concerns about whether it matters in the first place. Diversity matters to me because as a woman—and therefore a minority—in computing I was almost compelled to abandon computer science. This would have been a shame, as I cannot imagine being happier in any other field.

There was no major traumatic event, but a steady stream of skepticism—skepticism that I am capable; skepticism that I belong. This skepticism can come from well-meaning people: For instance, family friends concerned that a career in computer

Women, Hip-Hop, and Self-Teaching
The new diversity in computing

science would be a “waste of my femininity.” This skepticism can sometimes be aggressive: For instance, people telling me, “You’ll never be as good at math as the boys.” If several undergraduate professors had not sat me down to address my concerns, I would be doing something completely different today.

However most people are not as privileged as I was. The child of two computer scientists, I grew up programming: first Logo, then Basic, and then HTML and JavaScript almost as soon as commercial web browsers existed. From elementary school onward, my weekends and summers were filled with math and technology classes and projects. I programmed robots; I programmed software applications. Studying computer science should have been a no-brainer for me, but it was not.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Given the current numbers and the “leaky pipeline”—the continuous decline of minorities advancing their careers in science and technology— it is clear improvements are needed. My personal experience has taught me the importance of empowering people, both those who are personally affected and those who are bystanders, by educating them on the problems and possible solutions.

The first step toward educating people about problems and solutions is to understand what is going on. During my graduate school years, I read quite a bit on subtle factors that cause people to leave computer science, such as implicit bias and lack of appropriate support infrastruc-

The Female Founders
Conference, the first purposefully gender-specific Y Combinator conference,
was held at the Computer History Museum earlier this year.

03.01.2014