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Female computer science doctorates: what does the survey of earned doctorates reveal?

Published: 01 June 2002 Publication History

Abstract

Based on the National Center for Education Statistics (2000), in the 1997-1998 academic year 26.7% of earned bachelors' degrees, 29.0% of earned masters' degrees and 16.3% of earned doctorates' degrees in computer science were awarded to women. As these percentages suggest, women are underrepresented at all academic levels in computer science (Camp, 1997). The most severe shortage occurs at the top level---the doctorate in computer science. We know very little about the women who persist to the top level of academic achievement in computer science.This paper examines a subset of data collected through the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). The specific focus of this paper is to identify trends that have emerged from the SED with respect to females completing doctorates in computer science between the academic years 1990-1991 and 1999-2000. Although computer science doctorates include doctorates in information science, prior research (Camp, 1997) suggests that the percentage of women completing doctorates in information science as compared to computer science is low. The specific research questions are:1. How does the percentage of women who complete doctorates in computer science compare to those that complete doctorates in other fields?2. How does the length of time in school and the sources of funding differ for females as compared to males who complete doctorates in computer science?3. Where do women go after completing doctorates in computer science and what positions do they acquire? How do these experiences differ from their male peers?

References

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Camp, T. (1997) "The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline", Communications of the ACM, 40(10), 103-110.
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Hill, S. (2001a). Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2000. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2000, NSF 02-305.
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Hill, S. (2001b). Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 1999. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies, NSF 01-314.
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Hill, S. (2001c). "Survey Methodology: Survey of Earned Doctorates" {On-line}. Available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/ssed/sedmeth.htm.
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Hill, S. (2000). Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 1998. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies, NSF 00-304.
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Hill, S. (1999). Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 1997. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies, NSF 99-323.
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Hill, S. (1997). Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 1996. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies, NSF 97-329.
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National Center for Education Statistics (2000). Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education {On-line}. Available at: <http://nces.ed.gov>
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Sanderson, A. R., Dugoni, B. L., HotTer, T. B. & Selfa, L. (1999). Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: Summary Report 1998. National Opinion research center at the University of Chicago, Chicago Illinois.
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Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 34, Issue 2
Women and Computing
June 2002
176 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/543812
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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 June 2002
Published in SIGCSE Volume 34, Issue 2

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