The underrepresentation of women working as programmers and computer scientists in the technology industry is an issue of great concern for stakeholders in both industry and education. Recent computer science enrollment statistics suggest that the gender gap is actually increasing (Goode, 2008). In 2012 Game Developer Magazine reported that just four percent of programmers in the games industry are women (Miller, 2013) and in 2013, there were three US states in which not one single female student took the AP Computer Science exam, though many of those states had very few students of either gender take the course (Ericson, 2013). Research on this topic reveals myriad reasons for these disparities—from technology placement and habits of use in homes to differences in how boys and girls tend to play and tinker with technologies to the ways in which parents and teachers talk with children and teens about technology and media (Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Goode, 2008). Even when women do “make it” and obtain computer science related jobs in technology fields, surveys and research suggest that many women find these jobs conflicting their values and family lives, leading many women to seek other career directions (International Game Developers Association, 2004; Consalvo, 2008). This trend suggests a need for additional empirical research on the experiences and trajectories of women at varying stages of their careers in technology and computer science.
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