The United States education system has improved in the last two decades but is lacking when compared globally. Computer science in the United States is a class that you can barely find. Most High schools teach students how to use Microsoft office and count that as Computer Science when it is not even close to the real thing. Other countries such as Malaysia and Norway have adopted different techniques to help encourage women to study more computer science degrees. Also stereotypes of computer science do not even exist in some countries like they do in the United States. So it can be confusing as to why there are less women students pursuing computer related majors when there are more women than men attending college. There are some reasons to believe why there are not enough women in computer related majors such as psychological and social such as stereotypes. However, the United States should implement some policies towards advancing computer science education by looking at what other countries have done. 

In an NPR broadcast Kenny Joseph, a doctoral computer scientists student, said "With a more diverse group of people building it, you get better technology. If only men are building technology, then you get technology that pretty much just works for men but not for everyone "(CMU work to encourage women). This can be seen as changing the discipline. Changing the discipline that not only men should be computer scientists can break stereotypes in America how computer science is only for "introverts" or "anti-social" people. Surprisingly, those stereotypes do not really exists. A computer science student from the University of Maryland said "There are still those few people who would rather spend their whole day in front of a computer but there's many of us who won't do that" (Computer science enrollment). In the workforce, computer scientists have to work together in order to solve problems. It can be seen as something social and abstract thinking rather than the false stereotypical image it already has.  Ironically, stereotypical qualities that females are presumed to have make them desirable for Computer science jobs. 

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology developed an advertising campaign that help them get more women into their universities and studying computer science. "From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s the percentage of women pursuing computer science degrees dropped at NTNU from 20% to 6%" (Lagesen,74). A huge decrease in students alerted the directors of the Computer Science department and they partnered up with the Women and Computing Initiative (WCI) to create an advertising campaign that encouraged more women to join their program.   A member from the advertising campaign said "Women were invited to take part in the computer science profession, not because they were really interested in computer science, but rather because of the essential "feminine" qualities they were presumed to have." (Lagesen). These qualities that women have are essential for big tech companies. For example, "Professor A had received signals from people in the Norwegian ICT industry that were not really satisfied with the graduates they received from NTNU" (Lagesen,79). This quote means how the people receiving the graduates from this university wanted graduates who could communicate and grasp customers' needs and understand what they wanted. As you can see, women try to focus on the social aspect of computers and how it is more user friendly rather men would focus on the computer itself and how it works. 

The advertising campaign in Norway did a successful job in recruiting women. "By the summer of 1997 the percentage of women in the Computer Science department increased from 5.7% to 37.7% (lagesen,74). Karen, a student at the University, said that the only reason she joined the Computer science department was because of the advertisements. "Then she saw the circles and square brochure were it said: female qualities, we want women, big words like that".(Lagesen,83). Some women who also read the advertisements joined the program because they were interested in math and sciences. Kristel, another student, said that she wanted to get a masters in engineering and always put math and physics as a priority. When she saw the advertisements and the quota she thought it would be a good option to study computer science since it is related to math and sciences. Both of these women show the success of the advertising campaign. Since they both have an interest in math and science with a good job outlook, the campaign showed to be a success for people who fall under that category instead of people who do not. 

Another way to change the discipline was to incorporate an environment that is completely female. STEM schools have partnered up with an organization called The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria and this program mostly represents schools in low in-come area for girls to be prepared and ready for college (To grow new generation of girl scientists). Most of the students participating in the program are or will be first generation college students. The point of the program is that it is empowering women. Brittaney, a student from one of these schools, was more interested in history and English, but after taking a coding class at Harvard over the summer she believed she was ready to take on leadership roles and not be intimidated by the males in her class. When she was asked by one of her classmates why she was so comfortable she responded that she attended an all-girls school. To help alieve the confusion on the students face she told her that her teachers provided a lot of support and that each of their classes had a lot of technology incorporated into them (To grow new generation). She later went on to explain that if she had not attend her school that she would have not realized or been exposed to any of the STEM related majors and how much she loves it. Creating single sex schools can provide a supportive and eye opening path for women to explore and they will not feel intimidated by the stereotypes already set by society because they will have the support of their peers and teachers to help them. However, there is a counter argument against single sex schools. The American Psychological Association published 184 studies from 21 countries over a period of approximately 45 years and found that girl's educational achievements were not higher in single-ex schools (To grow new generation). Even though this may be true there are few cases where it can work for populations with lower incomes. Also, instead of single sex schools, resources can be spent on professional development for teachers so they can create extracurricular for girls to explore their STEM skills (To grow new generation). With all of these options to educate girls on technology we can see that the United States is trying to get more women to become scientists and engineers.

 Ironically in Malaysia women make up most of the computer science jobs and in colleges, especially the University Sains Malaysia (USM), where women compromised 51% of the total student intake in computer-related courses (Mellstrom, 889). The reasin why women in Malaysia dominate the computer industry is because of their desire for higher education. Women have come to dominate computer science in Malaysia is due to the intensive ethification of the Malaysian society and its consequences for higher education (Mellstrom, 891). This basically means that higher education in Malaysia is something that the middle class looks to strive for so that they can achieve more in the future. The high percentage of women shows that they are not affected by the stereotypes that the United States created. When students of the study were interviewed, they found it surprising that computer science in western culture was associated with being a masculine job (Mellstrom, 896). Even though there are more women doing computer related work in Malaysia, they still have gender bias towards certain types of jobs. Instead they represented a gender divide with outdoor jobs such as a civil engineer and indoor jobs like computer scientists. What makes it the most interesting is that different cultures have different looks on jobs and occupations. 

Computer science should be taught in America the way math is taught in the public school system.  In a discussion on NPR with Maria Klawe, a mathematician, computer scientist, and president of Harvey Mudd college, she said that "you can't really go into any profession without taking math every single year"(Henn). To make this even more general, instead of a profession we can relate this to college. Only 15-20 percent of computer science undergraduate majors at leading U.S departments and only 17 percent of those who are taking the high school advanced placement test are female (Margolis, 105).When Students arrive to college who are majoring in computer science there are people who have a lot of experience in coding, people who have little experience in coding, and then there's people with no experience in coding. Many of the people with little experience are women when they enter college (Margolis, 110).  However everyone has experience with math. That is why schools in America should begin to teach computer science in schools like they do with mathematics. At some Universities, to ease the process of studying computer science, some offer an introductory course for students who have little to no experience with coding, and a more advanced course for students who have experience coding. A reason for this is that less than ten percent of schools in America teach computer science and private sectors are finding it difficult to hire enough engineers and scientists because there are not enough people learning it. In a broadcast with Sal Khan, CEO of khan academy, he said "A lot of educators haven't been exposed to it when they were you. So that's a challenge, but there's also an opportunity in it that there isn't anything to replace. It's a green field. It's a new area and there's all sorts of incredible tools for people to learn."(Adding beauty and joy). Since there are not a lot of good educators teaching it, it can be difficult for people to learn the subject.

In most American schools since they do not already teach it, students who go into higher education might experience difficulty learning it. For example, the chairman of the computer science department of Maryland said "We went from somewhere around 2200 majors around the turn of the millennium to somewhat under 600" (Computer science course enrollment). These difficulties of computer science show how women struggle to stay in computer science after they graduate from high school. However some good news from this broadcast is that seven of the nation's largest schools districts such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago have pledged to increase student's access to computer science classes. A difficult thing that women find is that they conclude to soon that they have to look the part in order to succeed and they then begin to question their ability and interest if it is enough(Margolis, 113). This ideology of only males can dominate computer programming affects teachers as well. A male teacher had a discussion about his computer science class and explained that there were more boys than girls. He also said that many of the boys said it was fun but he did not hear that from any of the girls (Margolis, 113-114). Even though men might seem good at computer programming there is a likelihood that they are inflating what they know, or are overly confident while women have been shown to underestimate their abilities (Margolis,111). Usually, males seem to inflate their knowledge based on the fact that the stereotype of Computer Science is centered on them. This stereotype can cause women to feel unwelcome and they then start to lose interest and attachment with the program (Margolis,115). From inflating their knowledge about computer science it causes women to feel discouraged about their work because some of the introductory courses need some familiarity with technology that some students do not have (Margolis, 111). By addressing this topic it can help women feel confident with their ability in computer science. That is why as previously mentioned, the United States should provide more resources to girls to explore their STEM skills so that they can feel prepared and ready when they arrive at college.

Many boys seem to be more interested in computers than girls, however maybe it is because girls do not fully understand the beauty behind what computer science actually is. In a TED talk by Linda Liukas she informs us that most of the things we do in real if are related to computing. For example, knitting was a series of sequences that we follow in order to perform a task. Or following a recipe is an algorithm with a set of commands that we follow in order to properly execute it. She mentions that parents tell their children that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up such as an Astronaut but when the children ask questions about computers there are at a loss of words (Liukas). This relates to how we should give kids the right tools to help kids understand the beauty behind computers to help them express themselves and to show that it is not so complicated and scary to do so (Liukas). What she means by kid's expressing themselves is to use their imagination. For example, in the video she asked kids what a computer is and then what would be a good idea to use a computer for. One little girl said that she could have a light bulb that could change color and then also use it as a movie projector so she can use it when she goes camping with her father (Liukas). The imagination from children shows that they have these wonderful ideas but just need the proper teaching so they can express themselves the right way. This video teaches us the fundamentals that a computer is not a complicated machine but that people just do not understand or are not properly taught the beauty that computers have to offer. That is why it is important to change and teach to people the ideas behind computer science and that it is not just for males because females can offer exciting and new ideas that could be even better than the ones they come up with in Silicon Valley. 

Even though computer science in the United States is a class that you can barely find, we can see that there are effective ways of implementing it as shown by other countries. Instead of teaching it to students about how to use Microsoft office, we can teach it like math and have students be prepared when they enter college. To take it a step further we can look at other countries such as Malaysia and Norway and adopt different techniques similar to theirs to help encourage women to study more computer science degrees. Stereotypes can be forgotten too if there are more female scientist out there so women can be encouraged to study STEM related majors. This way we can graduate more women so big tech companies can hire efficient and amazing women programmers. Overall, women in America have been underrepresented in science related fields and the only way to change that is by creating more successful women scientists. Also, we need to inspire the younger generations that computer science is something amazing and that they can do it since we already say they can do anything. Computer Science should therefore be looked at as a field that will continue to grow because our world is dominated by technology and the only way for it to advance is to have people that continue to ask questions as to how and why things work the way they do, but we should also remember that men should not only be asking the questions. 

