This question is interesting because as we progress in technology there are fewer women and minorities graduating college with computer science degrees. Personally, I find that it makes computer science look like it is only for men when that is not true. Since I am a computer engineering major I have noticed that there are not a lot of computer science majors that are populated with women or minorities. Instead it is mostly populated by white males. I think that the reason for this is people think only smart people or nerds can pursue that major which is completely false. And I say that because even though I am majoring in that related field I believe that anyone can become a computer scientist if they tried their best to do so because the only way to become better at anything is practice.

In a radio broadcast by NPR talking about President Obama's State of the Union Address and how he said that he wanted to give students the opportunity to get a hands on experience of computer science classes, Eric Westervelt of the Ed team went to find out what that would actually look like. In the article, it said that the problem with computer science is that since it is new a lot of today's educators where not exposed to it as much as people are today. The other problem is that when students are being taught is to take the joyful part seriously. Getting involved deeply inside of a project and having trouble and then overcoming that obstacle is the most exciting time for a computer scientist. One other problem with computer science is diversity. To avoid that problem seven of the nation's largest school districts are trying their best to expand access to computer science classes.

In another broadcast by NPR they bring on Steve Henn who has been studying why the percentage of women in computer science decreased after 1984 and Patty Ordonez who attended John Hopkins in 1984 for computer science. The main argument about the article was that during the time when home computers where first coming out they were targeted towards boys. In one case, there was an advertisement for a computer called the commodore 64 and in the ad there was one girl who was jumping into a pool and several men using the machine. Also, in the mid-90s, Carnegie Mellon had one of the best Computer Science programs that was 93 percent male. The major values associated with this article are that computer science is a heavily dominated field of men and the advertisements, especially in the 80s, are targeted more towards boys than girls. Patty Ordonez experienced this first hand when she dropped out of the program for John Hopkins and then returned back ten years later and now has a Ph.D in that field. 

In another broadcast by Steve Henn about getting women to work in computer science, it mentions how schools are getting more women to take classes. The main idea behind the article is that math, unlike computer science, is taught every year to students in high school so when they come to college they will be prepared for what is next. Unlike computer science, where some kids can have little experience or no experience so they are not prepared for the courses yet to come. Maria Klawe who is a mathematician, computer scientist and president of Harvey Mudd College created two classes for computer science majors. One that was for students with little or no experience with coding and another for those who have self-taught themselves (Morning Editon). This change made a big difference on the department and has been adopted by 15 schools around the country including Carnegie Mellon. 

In a News article from CNN titled "Tech isn't just for nerdy boys with glasses" talks about how there are fewer women in computer science. It opens up with a filmmaker named Robin Hauser Reynolds from San Francisco who is making a 78 minute documentary called "CODE: Debugging the gender gap", a reason why Reynolds is making this movie would be because of her daughter. Her daughter is pursuing a computer science degree and believes she is not good at it when in reality she is in the top of her class out of 35 males and two women (CNN). It seems very discouraging for women who have potential to become a computer scientist to feel shut out because of their gender (CNN). The film opens up with interviews of young women to show that stereotypes are implemented at young ages. The movie is also directed towards the United States educational system about how Schools are not teaching students computer science materials needed for the future workforce.

In a study made by SUNY Genesso, they wanted to explore why not a lot of female students pursue the field of computer science. In the study, they hypothesized many factors that could contribute to why women are not graduating with computer science degrees. Some of these factors include self-confidence of women, are their contributions under-valued? And is the field to male dominated? From the results of the tests, the hypothesis that women are less comfortable in the classroom setting is supported and so is that they are less likely to correct a professor (Scragg). Also, they found that in the follow up questionnaire that the professor valued a women's contribution less than a man's (Scragg). If this hypothesis is proven true at other universities this can be a huge factor as to why women do not pursue computer science degrees because it can be seen as discouraging and we would need to change how it is being taught so that women can feel more comfortable when contributing to the class. The Study also found that women do think that the field is male dominated but it is more ideal to what they thought (Scragg). This just means that their hypothesis about what women think was supported but it was not what they expected when it came to what they thought about how populated it is. This study proves that there are some barriers to women who are studying computer science, however these may not all be true since it was only tested at one university.  

This research question is arguable because there are issues that have led to or have lead computer science to be primarily dominated by males such as advertising computers and associating computer science with "nerds". This can lead to an argument about how maybe more technology companies think women cannot code and instead try to hire more males. The sources provide excellent statistics of women and minorities who are represented in computer science. These sources made me realize that not only does the United States have a very low access to computer science classes but a majority of the people who take these courses are mostly white male students. From the information gathered maybe a more appropriate question would be "How to expand computer science programs to women and minorities in the United States".

