Daily Disruption News Desk | @dailydisrupt | January 17th, 2012
In the United States, the number of women represented in undergraduate computer science education and the white-collar information technology workforce peaked in the mid-1980s. Particularly in computer science, there has been a dramatic drop in women earning bachelor’s degrees. Recent figures from the Computing Research Association Taulbee Survey indicate that the number recently fell below 12%, from nearly 40% in the mid 80s. A similar situation is observed in Canada, where the decline of women in computer science is apparent.
Research has shown that some aspects about computing may discourage women. One of the biggest turn-offs is the “geek factor”. High school girls are repelled by the image of Computer Scientists sit in a cubicle writing code for the duration of their workday. The “geek factor” affects both male and female high school students, but it seems to have more of a negative effect on the female students. The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is looking to change that perception.
The 12th Annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) has opened its Call for Participation. The annual conference, a program of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, is the world’s largest gathering of women in computing. The Grace Hopper Celebration will take place from October 3 – 6, 2012 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s theme “Are We There Yet?” recognizes that technology and the culture of technology are continuously evolving but there are also concrete goals we are striving to achieve. Submissions are encouraged that answer the question “Are We There Yet?” The submission deadline is March 16, 2012.
The Grace Hopper Celebration is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research and engineering. The technical conference features well known keynote speakers and invited technical speakers, panels, workshops, new investigator technical papers, PhD forums, technical posters, birds of a feather sessions, the ACM Student Research Competition and an Awards Celebration.
Submissions on both technical and professional topics are encouraged. The Grace Hopper Conference committee is requesting submissions that reflect the conference theme “Are We There Yet?” in the areas of innovation within a company, from academia, or from individual contributors. Technical submissions that discuss the present and future state of technologies are encouraged.
The 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration attracted 2890 participants from 34 countries.
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a program of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and is co-presented with the Association for Computing Machinery. For more information, go to www.gracehopper.org .
