Recruiting computing professionals — Expanding the recruitment base

A series of four studies examined reasons for the underrepresentation of women in computing. These studies involved 1) 32 male and 32 female university computing students, 2) 19 female computing professionals, 3) 33 schoolgirls, and 4) 22 Australian and 22 Asian university computing students. The studies identified misperceptions about the nature of computing careers as a major factor deterring women from studying computing. It was considered likely that similar misperceptions would deter men from computing. A subsequent study of personality types of 60 computing professionals indicated that certain personality types are underrepresented in computing. A summary of the findings of the five studies is reported below.