European Women in Science and Engineering

From Anita Borg Institute Wiki

The session was attended by approximately 65 people. The three speakers: Reyyan Ayfer (Turkey), Aurora Vizcaino (Spain), Wendy Hall (UK) and Julita Vassileva (Canada and Bulgaria) gave presentations [[1]] rich with data about the status of women in computer science in their respective countries. A variety of questions were discussed:
1) Why are women overrepresented in CS in some European Countries (mostly Eastern European)?
2) Is there a new geographical divide: the honeypot factor - women are there where is no research funding?
3) Do women tend to select themselves out of unattractive for them jobs? (as advocated by Susan Pinker in “The Sexual Paradox”)
– “Unattractive” = higher in the hierarchy, higher paid, with more research $$, but also with more instability, longer hours, more responsibilities…
- Are these jobs unattractive by nature or because men want them so badly and women are kicked out?