Women are underrepresented in the computing fields. This excellent book examines research into this problem. This is less of a compliment than you might at first think, however.

First, let’s substantiate the compliment. There is clearly a problem with the lack of female computing professionals. There have been lots of studies over the years into why this is so, and what could be done about it. This book does an excellent job of presenting those studies, and even makes a point of looking mostly at studies done since the mid-1990s, since (as it says) the nature of the findings has begun to change in the last decade.

Now, why is that not as much of a compliment as you might think? This is a subject where clearly some kind of action leading to societal change is called for. And this is not the book that can result in that happening. It’s an edited collection of relevant research papers, each of which individually addresses the problem and provides some interesting and relevant conclusions. That results in several problems. First, there is no overall summary of findings, no action-oriented outcome, nor any goal-focused conclusions. The book does have a conclusions section, but it is short, and more focused on research issues than on the problem itself. In addition, the individual papers are written in an academic style. Not only are they heavy on footnotes (one paper has 23) and citations (one has over 100), but (more to the point) the conclusions (as is the custom for academic papers) come last. If you want to find out what you can do to help solve the problem, you have to wait until the end of each paper. As academic papers, these studies aren’t all that gripping. You have to be more into research than into societal change to appreciate what these papers offer. Finally, as an edited collection, there is a tremendous amount of overlap and redundancy, and (occasionally) even contradiction in the book’s contents.

Most of the above criticism is, of course, unfair. The subtitle of the book clearly states that it is about research, and it delivers, in spades, on that promise. If your goal is to understand the underlying facts about the problem of underrepresentation, then this is the book for you. If you’re more action-focused, there is still a role for this book, as one to influence you. If you intend to be a societal change-maker on this issue, you must read this book to understand the foundations of the arguments you intend to present.

All of that aside, the book contains many interesting nuggets of information. For example:

• Since 1985, there has actually been a decline in the number of women in information technology (IT) (the book concludes that “25 years of interventions have not worked”).
• Women are underrepresented in computer science programs in all 21 countries studied in an international research study (this is not just a US problem).
• The field of information systems has far less severe gender problems than does computer science. “Be careful,” says that particular study, “in generalizing findings pertaining to stereotypes and perceptions of one IT field to another.”