Exploring societal factors affecting the experience and engagement of first year female computer science undergraduates

Despite computer science (CS) having many women associated with it historically, such as Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper, the proportion of female students completing computing degrees is steadily declining, particularly in the USA, UK, and several other Western countries. Many initiatives have been attempted to address this gender imbalance, but the majority have proved to be ineffectual and difficult to sustain in the long term. One important step in the notorious shrinking participation pipeline for CS is the first year of a university degree. The transition from school to university can be a difficult time for many students and, for females in CS, issues of readjusting expectations and of developing their identity within a predominantly male cohort may present an additional challenge. In this paper, we analyse data from the North American National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and discuss gender-distinct perceptions of the discipline and factors relating to retention of students, particularly female students, within the context of a small UK survey of first-year students’ expectations at the start of their studies. We suggest several areas emerging from the investigation which have implications for CS curricula and teaching practice