The past year (2000-01) has been active and successful for ACM-W. The following gives a very brief description of the key events and accomplishments for ACM-W this year.

The mission of ACM-W is to engage in activities and projects that aim to improve the working and learning environments for women in computer science (CS). This includes promoting activities that result in more equal representation of women in CS such as mentoring or role modeling, monitoring the status of women in industrial and academic computing, providing historical information about women’s accomplishments and roles in CS, and serving as a repository of information about programs, documents and policies of concern to women in CS.

ACM-W is composed of two co-chairs, a working committee, an advisory committee, and an ambassador program. The working committee consists of ACM-W project leaders, the advisory committee serves the role of providing advice and suggestions to the chairs and the committee as a whole, and the ambassador program consists of ACM-W ambassadors from non-U.S. countries. Currently ACM-W’s internal organizational goal is to remain efficient and effective. Thus the advisory committee is purposely small and a requirement for membership on the working committee is to be a leader of an ACM-W sponsored project. This ensures that all members are productive and actively contributing to the mission and goals of ACM-W.

Most of ACM-W activities are managed via email and telephone. However, ACM-W attempts to meet in person at least once a year. The most recent meeting of ACM-W was at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Cape Cod, MA on September 14, 2000.

The following is a description of ACM-W programs. These are distinguished from ACM-W projects in that they are permanent and are funded primarily by ACM. Projects on the other hand are temporary (even though they may last many years) and are typically funded from sources outside of ACM.

Program Leader: Paula Gabbert

In the 1999-2000 fiscal year, ACM-W created a program for initiating and supporting ACM-W chapters in colleges and universities worldwide. The goal of the chapters is to recruit and retain women students in undergraduate and graduate computing programs. The chapters provide a variety of activities to educate women about the opportunities in the field of computing, engage women students in exciting computing activities, connect students with women leaders in the field, encourage students to promote the field of computing to young girls, and promote the activities of ACM. For those many institutions that already offer informal mentoring programs with similar goals and activities, formalizing these groups into ACM-W chapters can provide additional resources and networking opportunities.

ACM-W in coordination with the ACM Local Activities Coordinator, Fran Sinart, developed an ACM-W Chapter start up kit to help institutions begin their own chapter. Membership is open to all students and faculty interested in the recruitment and retention of women in the field. Although the goals and objectives for all chapters are similar, the activities for each chapter are suited to the individual institution. Activities may include inviting speakers from academia and industry to speak on their work or on the subject of women in computing, coordinating career fairs with women in computing, organizing informal gatherings of students, faculty, and/or industry leaders, coordinating mentoring programs for undergraduate and graduate students, assisting with computer camps for K-12 girls, and providing information sessions during registration. In addition, the chapters are being asked to develop websites to display chapter activities and to provide additional resources available through the ACM-W and other organizations promoting women in computing. In the future, ACM-W would like to expand this program by adding chapters to recruit and retain women in industry positions.

Program Leader: Tracy Camp

For historic reasons ACM-W’s membership and scope lie within the United States. However, ACM is an international organization and issues related to women in computing affect women worldwide. Thus ACM-W has taken steps to build an international scope via its Ambassador Program. This program, started in the 1999-2000 fiscal year, identifies one to two ACM-member computer scientists in a targeted country to become ACM-W Ambassadors. Initially the ambassadors' duties are to provide ACM-W with information on programs, conferences, organizations, and people that are involved in solving the issues related to women in computing. Initially, a web site is developed in each targeted country that describes the programs and activities in that country. ACM-W then links to those sites from its web site. Eventually these first steps will lead ACM-W to sponsor international programs and other activities such as international workshops or reports, thus giving ACM-W a strong international presence and ability to impact computing worldwide.

Figure 2: Canadian ACM-W website– http://tax.cs.ubc.ca/swift/CWICS/index.html

 

Figure 3: United Kingdom ACM-W website – http://www-theory.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~tom/women

Program Leader: Tracy Camp

ACM-W has an internship program where undergraduate students are sought out and hired part time for a semester at a time. Students can apply to ACM-W for the internship and the successful candidates become interns. ACM-W members monitor the interns and the Co-Chairs monitor the Internship Program. The interns will provide a valuable service to ACM-W and ACM, while at the same time gain professional experience and a working knowledge of ACM.

Program Leader: Tracy Camp

A website for ACM-W is maintained at http://www.acm.org/women/. The site contains information on ACM-W (e.g., announcements, current ACM-W projects, press releases), links to other interesting websites related to women in computing, and information on related issues. ACM-W project information is displayed, such as statistics and results. Recently, an online database has been added that contains references to research and programs on women in computing. Note that care is taken not to duplicate efforts or information that can be found on other ACM-W websites such as TAP and WCAR. ACM-W typically hires students to develop and maintain the site through the ACM-W Internship Program.

Figure 4: Homepage of the ACM-W website found at http://www.acm.org/women/

The following projects are sponsored projects of ACM-W (in alphabetical order).

Project Leader: Ellen Spertus

Project URL: http://www.mills.edu/SHOWCASE/S00/MCS282/E_CONF/home.html

Starting Date: May 7, 2000

Status: Completed

ACM-W sponsored the ACM-Mills Conference on Pioneering Women in Computing the Sunday following the ACM Banquet (May 7, 2000) at Mills College in Oakland, CA. This symposium, partially funded by Sun, proved to be an exciting event that featured five computing pioneers: Kay Mauchly Antonelli (ENIAC programmer), Jean Bartik (ENIAC programmer), Jean Sammet (COBOL developer), Annie Easley (alternative power technology), and Antonia Stone (community networking).

Project Leaders: Ellen Spertus and Susanne Hupfer

Project URL: http://tap.mills.edu/

Starting Date: July 1994

Status: Active

The Ada Project (TAP) - named in honor of Ada Lovelace - is designed to serve as an online clearinghouse for information and resources related to women in computing. The site includes pertinent information on conferences, projects, discussion groups, organizations, fellowships, and positions. TAP also maintains substantive bibliographies of references relating to women in computing, science, and engineering; early science and technological education; and academic issues. Wherever possible, TAP includes links to existing on-line papers and informational sites, rather than duplicating information locally.

Figure 5: The TAP website found at http://tap.mills.edu

Project Leaders: Gloria Townsend, Tracy Camp, and Denise Gürer

Starting Date: Fall 1999

Status: Active

Many programs that focus on women in computing/technology have the same overall goals. These groups should not work separately but should collaborate and join forces towards the ultimate goal of increasing the numbers of women in computing and providing an egalitarian and equal work environment. To this end, a coalition for women in computing was formed with representatives from organizations that are active in women in computing. Currently the coalition is being led by CRA-W (with Leah Jamieson as Chair) and includes members from CRA, ACM, IEEE-CS, AAAI, SIAM, USENIX, IWT, WEPAN, and NSF. The idea is to create a common voice that can have a greater impact than that of the individual organizations. The current goals of the coalition are:

• Take inventory of the various programs for women in computing in order to build a comprehensive picture of the problems, challenges, and successes of existing efforts,
• Explore opportunities for communication, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration among the existing groups,
• Serve as a clearinghouse on information on women in technology programs, research, resources, expertise, conferences, and so on,
• Collectively secure funding to expand and sustain highly successful programs,
• Forge a stronger image of a community of women in computing,
• Consider policy issues of concern to women in computing, and
• Explore paths that will lead to recommendations to our various parent organizations for increased resources and support for women’s activities.

Project Leaders: Betty Toole

Starting Date: October 1999

Status: Active

The fascinating and very human story behind Ada Lovelace's landmark 1843 article on computer programming and her collaboration with Charles Babbage is a wonderful allegory on the creative process and the value of individual perseverance. This project is to develop a documentary film and an accompanying educational package (book, web site, and CD-ROM) that tells the story of this collaboration. In addition to creating a film of broad interest, our hope is that teachers can use this combined package to highlight the collaborative, creative, and critical thinking skills that are vital for the success of today's young people.

Project Leader: Kathy Kleiman

Starting Date: 1995

Status: Active

This project is documenting the history of the first modern computer programmers of the world’s first general purpose computing machine (the ENIAC). These programmers are: Kay Mauchley Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Betty Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum. Due to the success of the project, the ENIAC Programmers have received much overdue recognition for their pioneering work. They all were inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women in Technology International (see http://www.witi.com/Center/Museum/Hall/97/eniac.html), Kay Antonelli and Jean Bartik have been invited as guest speakers all over the world, including the ACM Banquet 2000.

Project Leaders: Denise Gürer and Tracy Camp

Starting Date: Fall 1999

Status: Active

In this NSF-funded project, ACM-W led the effort to assign and distribute scholarships for attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC). GHC is a technical conference presenting keynote talks by some of the most successful women in the computing field, short technical presentations by a wide range of conference participants, as well as panels, workshops, and birds-of-a-feather sessions. GHC scholarships are given out every conference for travel and registration expenses. Recipients are people in computing and related fields who have an abiding interest in computer science and women in computing and who otherwise would not be able to attend. The grants are awarded to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and people early in their professional careers.

One of the goals of GHC is to encourage women to pursue and stay in the field of computer science. It is necessary to encourage young women before they leave the pipeline. One strong and effective method to do this is through role modeling and mentoring. By providing the monetary support for students and young professionals to attend GHC, they are exposed to women who are creating, improving, and studying computer related technologies and sciences. They also meet junior women and other students, thus meeting potential mentors and increasing their professional network. Women in computing are diverse and thus require many different role models and mentoring opportunities. GHC is the only conference that focuses on women in computing and is the place for these interactions to occur. This scholarship and travel grant project provides a unique opportunity to directly affect the careers of budding computer scientists and reverse the declining numbers of women in computing.

Project Leaders: Denise Gürer and Tracy Camp

Project URL: http://www.acm.org/women

Starting Date: January 1999

Status: Completed

During the last decade, considerable research has been undertaken to understand the reasons behind the existence of the incredible shrinking pipeline and in some cases to take action to increase the numbers of women in computing. However, there has not been a central focus to bring all this research together and thus help provide a coherent direction for future work. Through the work of this NSF funded project, we have taken a first step towards this goal.

It is our hope that the end results of this project will achieve three outcomes:

• Provide a public repository and central focal point for information and research pertaining to women in computing,
• Raise the consciousness of the computing community through the web site and dissemination of the final report, and
• Suggest directions to move towards to help increase the numbers of women in computing and make computer science environments more women friendly.

Figure 6: ACM-W online database for references on women in computing. Access is through http://www.acm.org/women

Project Leader: Gloria Childress Townsend

Starting Date: July 2000

Status: Active

Many female undergraduates know so little about the nature of computer science (CS) that they are reluctant to enroll in their institution’s introductory CS course. Those that do enroll in an introductory CS course find that their male counterparts have more computing experience: from high school courses, informal programming experimentation, or both. Due to their small numbers and minimal experience with computers, female students frequently feel more frustration with early technical difficulties than male students, as they participate in initial laboratory sessions. In order to address these issues, this project is providing women with a "head start" experience. This experience occurs before a female student enrolls in an introductory CS class and will create a more level playing field for when they do later enroll in the CS classes. After the "head start" experience is implemented at a few initial universities, a model will be created to ease the process that others can use to help level the playing field across the nation.

Figure 7: Women in Computing website to help recruit and retain women in computer science. Accessed through http://acad.depauw.edu/~gct/home/WIChome.htm

Project Leader: None

Starting Date: 2002

Status: Activating

Many institutions are concerned about the declining numbers of women in computer science and wish to take action to help reverse this trend. Mentoring and role model programs have been shown to help the recruiting and retention rates of women in computer science. This project has the goal of cobbling together a toolkit that can assist institutions in developing their own mentoring and role modeling programs. The toolkits will be made available via ACM-W’s website and will be part of the ACM-W Chapter start up kits.

Mentoring is defined traditionally as a supportive relationship, sustained over a period of time, between a more experienced person (the mentor) and a less experienced person (the mentee). Another proven method to increase the numbers of women in computing is through role models. Women role models demonstrate the presence, the participation, and the continuing prospects of women in the CS fields. When young women think about computing as a career choice, the presence of successful women in CS is an encouraging signal. Not only do senior women scientists serve as role models in terms of scientific excellence; but young women also appreciate models of balancing a CS career with family and other aspects of life.

This project will first determine what tools are currently available and attempt to compile those into a first toolkit. Next, nonexistent but needed components will be identified. Funding will be obtained and those components will be developed and added to the toolkit. Potential collaboration with other women in technology programs will be investigated.

Project Leader: Tracy Camp

Project URL: http://www.acm.org/women/

http://www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/cacm/paper.html

Starting Date: May 1994

Status: Active

Description: The trend of decreasing numbers of women enrolled in higher education across the United States was studied, analyzed, and reported. Current data shows that women now represent approximately 17% of the physicists and engineers and 28% of the computer scientists currently receiving Bachelor of Science degrees. In physics and engineering these numbers have leveled off and in computer science these numbers are actually decreasing. Recent results indicate that even though the enrollment of CS is going up, the percentages of women enrolling in CS programs is declining. The goal of this project is to keep on top of the current statistics on women in computing, investigate these trends, and explore the reasons behind the decreasing numbers of women in CS.

Project Leaders: Teri Perl

Project URL: http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org/

Starting Date: October 1996

Status: Active

Pathways is an online virtual environment that encourages young women to continue their math and sciences studies by matching them with women scientists to serve as mentors through asynchronous online activities that center around women scientists and their discoveries. Pathways is an Internet-based mentor program where participants have access through a web browser that provides text-based information and graphics with point and click capabilities. ACM-W is supporting this project, housed within Math/Science Network (M/SN). M/SN is an organization that produces Expanding Your Horizons workshops all across the United States to encourage girls to pursue math and science. M/SN will provide access to more than 100,000 students and women scientists and provides a home for Pathways.

Figure 8: The Pathways website at http://expandingyourhorizons.org

Project Leader: Tracy Camp

Starting Date: Fall 2001

Status: Active

Description: SIGCSE has asked Tracy Camp to edit a special issue on women in computing for their Inroads June 2002 issue. The goal is to have a comprehensive issue on women in computing that is referenced for many years to come. The issue will be extensive and will involve many ACM-W members as authors.

Project Leader: None

Project URL: http://www.womenswork.org/girls/

Starting Date: Mid-1995

Status: Inactive

This project addresses the need of role models in nontraditional careers such as computer science, for girls and young women. An "examples" sampler of women professions in a wide range of nontraditional careers is being developed that will take the form of a CD-ROM and a supporting Web site. The CD will be arranged to promote easy access to a database of basic information introducing 100-200 careers in appropriate multimedia formats, including examples of the women scientists’ work. Currently ACM-W is searching for a new leader for this project and a new home to contain the online samples.

Project Leader: Tracy Camp

Starting Date: August 1998

Status: Active

Description: This project is organizing a teacher enhancement program for the public school teachers in the state of Colorado that will center on gender issues. A workshop is being organized for high-school teachers that teach computer science that focuses on sharing positive and negative factors that influence the interest of girls in computers. An additional goal is to educate the teachers on the ACM high school curricula recommendations.

Project Leader: None

Project URL: http://www.womenswork.org/wcar/

Starting Date: April 1998

Status: Inactive

Description: The WCAR Web site provides access to a compilation of colleges and universities that have formal and/or informal programs for encouraging/retaining women in CS. Created by Laura Downey in 1994, WCAR was based on the presence of formal and informal programs as one indicator of an institution's (or individuals of an institution) commitment to addressing some of the obstacles faced by women in computer science. The WCAR list identifies "women-friendly" academic programs in CS thereby providing female CS students important information regarding positive encouraging environments -- which can only enhance a student's academic success. Currently ACM-W is searching for a new leader for this project and a new home to contain the database.

Project Leader: Denise Gürer

Project URL: http://www.davisgrayinc.com/

Starting Date: 1997

Status: Active

Description: ACM-W helped to sponsor Davis Gray Productions in producing a 27-minute program for television on women career paths and successes in computer science. The Davis Gray description of the video is: "The world of computing is exploding with opportunities, especially for women. This program presents accomplished female computer scientists and specialists working in the fields of Computing, Finance, Healthcare, Academia and Publishing. The program emphasizes the need for more women to take part in shaping the technology that will define the next millennium."