My Spring class has just concluded. One of the final issues we consider is that of equity issues related to technology use. A subcategory of this topic large gender difference in “interest” in computer science (coding).
On a descriptive level, this equity gap is easy to demonstrate. The stats on participating in AP programming courses, attrition from a college CS major, graduate program enrollment, etc. demonstrate the size of the gap. Explanations and remedies (if this is even the appropriate term) are far more difficult.
I thought this post from the Google blog was informative and shared it with the students I work with. The focus is very much on the culture in which programmers work and how this culture is perceived. The approach taken by Carnegie Mellon is highlighted. CMU enrolls 40% females in contrast to the average 14%.