Professor Meraz and Gender in Computer Science

In professor Meraz’s guest lecture, she discusses inequalities for women in the computer science field.

She starts her lecture with some food for thought about the idea of gender.  She says that no men notice gender until a woman steps into the room.   This is just a way of saying that gender is topic of concern when people of different genders are placed together, but when they are segregated, neither gender really thinks about it.  This idea relates to “cognitive dissonance,” because it shows that when people are with peers of the same gender, they are generally more relaxed, but when someone from another gender arrives, they dedicate thought to the differences they have between each other, which can sometimes be hard to understand completely.  She then introduces the term “the incredible shrinking pipeline”, which is used to describe the ever shrinking number of women in the computer science field.  Professor Meraz then explains that computers are generally perceived as a “boy toy”.  Diner Dash is a video game she shows the class.  It’s a game where the main character is a waitress and the objective of the game revolves around multi-tasking for the restaurant.  She uses this game to point out that games for women tend to revolve around “work”, while games for men or more "leisurely".  I disagree with this, because male games can be just as stressful and demanding as female games, even if the objectives are different.

The next subject in her lecture is blogging, and how women are differentiated here as well.  She gives reasoning from both women’s and men’s point of view for how and why this is, and then she gives factual reasons.  Some women believe their blogs only receive male attention if the girls talk about sex or post revealing pictures, while some men say that women are actually at an advantage, because guys tend to favor a women’s post over a men’s, even if the content is very similar.  This discussion is then tied into political blogging, and some of the women who have been successful at it.  Meraz then explains that the real reason most women in the field are only designers, and not programmers or other high-ranking positions, is because men dominate the field, and rarely invite women to hold these positions.  One explanation she offers is because men think women are too focused on feelings, and not firm enough in their opinions.  This is an example of stereotyping.  This also brings questions about ethics.  Is it ethical to exclude women from positions like these? Probably not…  Finally, she concludes by saying that one of the reasons she covered these topics is to show that sexism is quite prevalent on the internet.

Gender is an example of a diffuse status.  This whole lecture was a discussion about what effects the diffuse status of women has on computer science.  Apparently, these effects are very great.