Why are we still here?: Experiences of successful women in computing.

Abstract

This paper describes a study into the attitudes and experiences of women at three distinct stages of the career pipeline: undergraduate, graduate student, and staff. Computing has often been likened to a "leaky pipeline" for women, so this work aims to consider various aspects of the student experience from the perspective of those who have in some sense succeeded and got at least as far as studying the subject at degree level. Through concentrating on the opinions and experiences of women who have persisted (and in some sense, done well) in computing, the authors hope to accentuate the positive: rather than work out what makes women drop out of computing, we instead consider what makes them stay.