How CMU increased number of women in CS from 7% to 37% [pdf]

I tried to find out how, but there was too much filler to find the reason in under a few minutes.

I didn't re-read it, but from what I remember, they started an intensive effort to both retain women who started in computing classes as well as understand the reasons why less women start computing and continue.

They had a smaller usegroup they used for their study and show that women drop out thinking that they're not doing as well as men in the same classes when really, they're doing about above average.

It's only 6 pages, and clearly says:

"The findings of this study have been well documented elsewhere and we will not go into details here."

The paper is a summary and synthesis of an entire project, see some of their publications here:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/gendergap/www/papers/

Their approach is multi-pronged and involved:

1) Meticulous study of male and female CS students' attitudes towards computer science education. "Funded by Sloan, the project consisted of hundreds of interviews with both male and female CS students about their histories with computing, interests, motivations and aspirations, reasons for majoring in CS, and their experiences in the undergraduate program. Conducted over a four-year period, the project was able to track many students throughout their time at Carnegie Mellon. By interviewing students once a semester."

2) Education of new teachers of Advanced Placement (AP) Exam for Computer Science in a teacher summer school and alerting them to the gender gap in computing. This summer school took place in CMU, and since it was addressing gender gap, CMU became some sort of Mecca for those who who care about women's involvement in computing.

3) Revamping of the admissions process. "In addition to demonstrated academic competence, the Admissions Office began giving more weight to non-academic factors, looking for applicants with leadership potential and a commitment to “give back to the community.” These broadened criteria also became important in awarding financial aid .. About the same time, Allan Fisher also conveyed to the Admissions Office his goal of a gender-balanced program. He felt it was important to get the message out that “no prior programming experience is necessary” to enter the CMU computer science program. The image of a CS student as someone (usually male) who has played with computers since early childhood is widespread. This often discourages many otherwise talented students from applying to a computer science program."

4) "A Supportive Community: The Women@SCS Advisory Council: The Women@SCS Advisory Council was created in the fall of 1999 and has since met weekly during the academic year. Membership includes undergraduates representing all four years and graduate students representing the various departments within SCS*". 9

My university used a rather simple bait and switch trick with the degree names and changed the name of power engineering to a more friendly energy and environmental engineering.

It actually worked pretty well. There was a significant increase in female students and they didn't change to another degree later.

Actually, doesn't that mean that women don't have what it takes to actually be a programmer? The devil is in the details, as they say.

Not stating a fact, just pointing out that in the context of a technical profession, that citation actually sounds derogatory.