Summary

  1. Al Youngblood
    SOCI 3309: Qualitative Methods
    April 23, 2003
    Presentation Handout

    Title:  A Qualitative Study of Motivation, Experience, and Feelings of College Women in
     Pursuit of a Degree in Computer Science

    Research Questions:  Three central research questions were considered in the study.

    • Motivation:  Why did these women decide to study computer science, a male-dominated field?
    • Experiences:  What are some shared academic experiences among these women during their post-secondary studies in computer science?
    • Feelings and Perception:  What pressures do these women feel and perceive for “success” in computer science?

    Method:  A voluntary study sample of four upper-division, undergraduate women majoring in computer science (CS) at a large regional university in the Southwest was selected using both snowball and purposive sampling. 

    With the assistance of an interested female CS faculty member, who did not personally know the subjects, an email was twice mailed to six potential candidates asking for volunteers to participate in a confidential one-hour tape-recorded interview.   Four elected to participate.  One rescinded her offer to participate.  Independently, another candidate, and her CS lab partner, elected to participate upon the suggestion of a CS lab coordinator.  

    In total, five women were interviewed.  However, only four interviews were considered in the study.  One woman’s responses were discarded because she did not represent the population of female undergraduate CS majors since she already had two bachelor’s and one master’s degree.  

    Semi-structured interviews, following standard institutional review board (IRB) considerations, were conducted over the course of a week.  An interview guide (Attached) loosely corresponds with the study’s three central research questions.  

    The metatheoretical frameworks of both Dryburgh (2000) and Kay (1992) were used to prepare, identify, and analyze collected transcript data.    Bandura’s “self-efficacy” and social learning theory, as well as Elliott’s theories of “self-concept,” were used for motivational analysis.  Canada and Pringle (1995) was used to understand professor-student interaction. 

    Findings:  

    Motivation:  All interviewees at some point in their early schooling, at home, or work, were introduced to computers by a male figure, most commonly their fathers.  Through successive interaction in a variety of contexts—i.e, through video games, simple BASIC programming, or word processing—these women gained an appreciation for a computer’s utility, which was distinguished from its hardware components.  None were ever “afraid” of using a computer.

    The desire to obtain a lucrative professional position within one year from graduation was the principal factor for completion of their degree.  Each subject believed that women as a whole were as capable as men of performing well in CS, though their own performance was “average” to “above average.”  These women had a great appreciation of the practical applications of computer languages—i.e., the “flexibility of creativity” in developing and implementing a machine algorithm. 

    Experiences:  One unexpected commonality among the sample was their participation in competitive athletic sports in elementary school.  Athletics and music still play a role for each of them.  Each woman noted at least one isolate instance of physical aggression against them at early age, perhaps due to their gender.  All, except one, felt “feminine,” and reported an otherwise “normal,” happy childhood. 

    Each subject expressed a freedom from institutional discrimination in later academic settings, but they did note topical “sexist” remarks by a CS department professor.  All women believed that men were “insiders,” with special privileges and access to information local to male networks.  Despite these apparent inequalities, they were optimistic of their opportunity to achieve in CS—one believed she had an “advantage.”

    Three of the women felt more attachment to male colleague because men were perceived as “more straight-forward.”  Two women thought other women were less prone to “back-stabbing, “pettiness,” and “cattiness.”  As a group, they were annoyed with the sensitivity of stereotypical females.  Women, they contended, acted differently in larger groups.

    Feelings and Perception:   Each subject thought of themselves as “luckier” in their educational accomplishments.  All believed themselves to be competitive, but within “limits.”  These boundaries were noted separately as “family,” “self-control,” or “balance.”   Each one felt lonely in their CS classes, and two women expressed concern about the lack of women in the greater professional marketplace. 

    Some thought they were not natively intelligent, just persistent.  All felt that math skills were important in CS success.  However, “diligence” was the most important factor to prevent attrition and achieve success from CS.   Interestingly, all interviewees had taken at least one sociology and/or psychology course in their earlier studies. 

    Citations:

    Canada, K., and Pringle, R. 1995. The Role of Gender in College Classroom Interactions:
    A Social Context Approach.  Sociology of Education.  68(July).

    Dryburgh, H.  2000.  Underrepresentation of Girls and Women in Computer Science: 
    Classification of 1990s Research.  Journal Educational Computing Research.
    23(2).

    Elliot, G. C.  1986.  Self-Esteem and Self-Consistency:  A Theoretical and Empirical
    Link Between Two Primary Motivations.  Social Psychology Quarterly. 49(3).

    Key, R.  1992.  Understanding Gender Differences in Computer Attitudes, Aptitude, and
    Use:  An Invitation to Build Theory.  Journal of Research on Computing in
    Education.  25(2).

     

Appendix E - Transcripts

[105 Pages Removed to Protect Confidential Data]

 

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