CRA Bulletin

This article reports on the proportion of women who either have received degrees from or are on the faculty of computer science and engineering ("CS/CE") departments in the United States and Canada. It draws on data compiled from CRA’s Taulbee Survey of doctorate-granting CS/CE departments.

Table 1 shows the percentage of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees granted to women since 1985. Although the gender of Ph.D. recipients has always been tracked by the Taulbee Survey, questions about the gender of bachelor’s and master’s degrees recipients have only been included since 1994. The results from Taulbee are compared with data from National Science Foundation surveys on science and engineering (S&E) degrees. The most recent results for NSF data are from 2005 (no data were reported at the bachelor’s and master’s degrees levels for 1999).[1]

Table 2 focuses on the percentage of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in CS/CE that have been granted to women. Although the Taulbee results combine CE and CS results, while NSF figures reflect CS degrees only, the inclusion of CE data has little impact on the ratio of men to women in Taulbee’s results. Table 2 shows that the Ph.D.-granting departments targeted by the Taulbee Survey grant a lower proportion of bachelor’s and master’s degrees to women than the much broader range of schools that are surveyed by NSF. Unfortunately, both CRA and NSF surveys report that the share of undergraduate CS degrees granted to women has been declining since the mid-1980’s (see also http://www.cra.org/info/education/us/women.html).

Table 3 looks at the percentage of faculty, both current and those newly hired, who are women.

[1] Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering, Tables C-5 and E-1; and National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics. 2006. Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2005. NSF 07-305. Susan T. Hill, project officer. Arlington, VA.

This article can also be found on the CRA website, at http://www.cra.org/info/taulbee/women.html