The gender pay gap in Computing and Engineering and Solutions in Moving the Needle
1Microsoft Research Gender Diversity Lecture Series 3: The gender pay gap in Computing and Engineering and Solutions in Moving the Needle
Catherine Hill, Ph.D. is the Vice President for American Association of University Women and the co-principal investigator for a National Science Foundation project on women in engineering and computing. Formerly an assistant professor at the University of Virginia, Hill now focuses on translating scholarly research into accessible reports and articles that garner media attention. Nancy Amato, Ph.D is a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University where she co-directs the Parasol Lab and is chair of the university-level Alliance for Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Systems Biology. Hill will begin her talk with the latest data on pay differences by gender in computing compared with gender gaps in other historically male fields such as engineering. Long term trends will be discussion as well as projections for the future. Amato will discuss how Texas AandM tackled the wage gap challenges and how they increased the number of female faculty to nearly 25% of the faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and how this has impacted the overall culture of the department. Hill will then transition to practices that can help women pursue historically male fields like computing, drawing upon AAUW forthcoming report Solving the Equation: Women in Engineering and Computing. This report highlights recent research that explored the underrepresentation of women in these fields, including the effects of stereotypes and biases, personal preferences, sense of belonging, and educational and workplace environments. Other suggestions for those working in computing will be discussed including ways to address implicit bias and workplace civility. Hill will conclude with special focus on ways that men can help create of a workplace climate that works for women and people of color including the following: •Seek opportunities to serve as role models for girls and young women considering engineering and computing. •Refuse to participate on all-male conference panels. Encourage conference organizers to recruit at least one female panelist. Talk about social relevance of your work with young people in your life If you place a high value on communal goals, prioritize working in jobs that allow you to work with others on socially relevant problems.