Crossroads - Summer 2014

ture. Understanding these issues has helped me to better identify the sources of problems and also propose solutions. For instance, understanding the statistical biases people have against women in male-dominated fields has helped me to: 1. Not blame people for assuming I am less competent and 2. Explain to people the scientific reasons it is important to give women a second look rather than going off of snap judgments. For the Diversity issue, we have invited experts to discuss many of these topics.

As for solutions, I have found educating people and generating discussions to be incredibly helpful. At MIT I never heard the word “feminism” outside the Women and Gender Studies department, but in 2009 I co-founded “Graduate Women at MIT” with these goals in mind. Few people saw the need to have a campus-wide women’s group. Many made frustrating and subtly sexist comments. After we started inviting speakers and

Women in
Computing

We explore four women who contributed extraordinary advancements to the field of computing:

1842 : Ada Lovelace was an analyst for Charles Babbage, the English inventor of the first mechanical computer. Lovelace’s notes describe the first algorithm tailored for a computer, earning her the title of the “first computer programmer.”

1949: A United States navy admiral, Grace Hopper is known for her contributions to COBOL, a modern programming language designed for business and finance.

1966: Frances Allen published highly impactful research in the field of compilers and parallel computing, for which she earned the prestigious Turing Award in 2006.

2005: Mary Lou Jepsen co-founded One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit organization that has delivered more than 2. 4 million inexpensive laptops to developing countries.

— Jay Patel
panelists to discuss topics, such as
implicit bias and gendered elements
of collaboration, women started talk-
ing more openly about their experi-
ences, and men became more inter-
ested in discussing and improving
the situation of women at MIT. These
discussions often revealed men were
not being insensitive out of malice;
many had blind spots when it came
to gender diversity. Today, GWAMIT
has more than 80 active members
running two annual conferences and
a mentoring program; we also have
more than 1,500 mailing list mem-
bers, many of whom are men. This
has made me hopeful that content
like what is in this issue, and follow-
up discussions about diversity, can
significantly improve how welcom-
ing our field is to women and other
underrepresented groups.

THIS ISSUE

We have chosen 10 feature articles to empower you with a deeper understanding of current issues and solution ideas. In this issue, our authors examine how social factors are keeping people who do not look like the quintessential, boy genius “ hacker” out of computing. We remind our readers that diversity is not just about gender, but also about socioeconomic factors and culture. For instance, in this issue, we have a piece on teaching computational thinking through hip-hop. The space of what we learn and how we teach becomes so much richer when we include diverse perspectives.