The Computer Scientist and the Cleaner v5

The Computer
Scientist and the
Cleaner
Ian Gent
University of St Andrews
This is a DRAFT talk, version 5
For more context please visit:

http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-computer-scientist-and-cleaner.html

Saturday, 12 October 13

... or ...


A short history of
sexism in St Andrews


The most important
problem for computing


If you’re not
uncomfortable for the
next few minutes this is
not a good talk


What is this talk, really?
A short talk about gender balance and equality in
computer science.


What is this talk, really?
Not an examinable part of CS1002 in a formal sense,
but something I think you should be exposed to


The Computer Scientist
and the Cleaner
• Let me tell you a story.
“The computer scientist and the cleaner had
a long and happy marriage. One of their few
arguments was when she forgot their
wedding anniversary. But their marriage was
strong and he forgave her.”


and the Cleaner
“One of their few arguments was when she
forgot their wedding anniversary.”

• Let me ask you a question.
•
•


Who forgot the anniversary?
Was it the computer scientist or the
cleaner?

and the Cleaner
“One of their few arguments was when she
forgot their wedding anniversary.”

• Let me ask Google a question.
•
•


Who forgot the anniversary?
Was it the computer scientist or the
cleaner?

Unmoderated image search for
“Computer Scientist”

C


Unmoderated image search for
“Cleaner”


Who forgot the
anniversary?
“The computer scientist and the cleaner had
a long and happy marriage. One of their few
arguments was when she forgot their
wedding anniversary. But their marriage was
strong and he forgave her.”

•
•


Look inside your brain
Did you think the woman was the
cleaner?

A short history of
sexism in St Andrews
•
•

The University is 600 years old, yet ...
Its ﬁrst female professor was a computer
scientist!

•
•

Prof Ursula Martin CBE, now at QMUL

•

For 579 years we didn’t have a female
Prof

Yes, a 600 year old University’s ﬁrst
female professor hasn’t retired yet!

•

Until 2004, the Rules of Golf for women
were made by a male only club in St
Andrews

•

For 595 years we didn’t have a female
Principal

•

Prof Louise Richardson

Gender Balance
CS1002
W
o
m
a
n


M
a
n

Gender Balance
CS Teaching Fellows
W
o
m
e
n


M
a
n

Gender Balance
CS Lecturers
W
o
m
e
n


M
e
n

Gender Balance
CS Senior Lecturers & Readers
W
o
m
e
n


M
e
n

Gender Balance
CS Professors
W
o
m
e
n


M
e
n

Let’s be clear...
• The University of St Andrews does not have
sexist hiring policies

• We have clear non-sexist hiring policies
•

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/inclusiverec/

• The gender balance in St Andrews CS
• reﬂects general imbalance in the discipline
• and it’s a big problem

Why the most important
problem?
Why should we have more women in CS?
I only know of two good reasons, but they
are overpoweringly good.

•
•


It’s right
Computer Science would be better

It’s Right
•
•

If a woman doesn’t want to do CS, that’s ﬁne
But ...

•
•
•
•


CS is an incredibly rewarding discipline

That is NOT ﬁne

If a woman is put off CS they are potentially
missing out
Everybody in CS is responsible for making
sure this doesn’t happen

Computer Science
Would Be Better
•

“Computing's too important to be left to
men”
Karen Spärck Jones, 1935-2007

•
•

Karen did a bit more than a cute quote
She invented a key technique for internet
search ...

•
•

... 30 years before the World Wide Web

Don’t throw away half the world’s talents!


Karen Spärck Jones, image Wikipedia

In addition to determining whether faculty expressed a bias
against female students, we also sought to identify the processes
contributing to this bias. To do so, we investigated whether
faculty members’ perceptions of student competence would help
to explain why they would be less likely to hire a female (relative
to an identical male) student for a laboratory manager position.
Additionally, we examined the role of faculty members’ preexisting subtle bias against women. We reasoned that pervasive
cultural messages regarding women’s lack of competence in science could lead faculty members to hold gender-biased attitudes
that might subtly affect their support for female (but not male)
science students. These generalized, subtly biased attitudes toward women could impel faculty to judge equivalent students
differently as a function of their gender.
The present study sought to test for differences in faculty
perceptions and treatment of equally qualified men and women
pursuing careers in science and, if such a bias were discovered,
reveal its mechanisms and consequences within academic science. We focused on hiring for a laboratory manager position as
the primary dependent variable of interest because it functions as
a professional launching pad for subsequent opportunities. As
secondary measures, which are related to hiring, we assessed: (i)
perceived student competence; (ii) salary offers, which reflect
the extent to which a student is valued for these competitive
positions; and (iii) the extent to which the student was viewed as
deserving of faculty mentoring.
Our hypotheses were that: Science faculty’s perceptions and
treatment of students would reveal a gender bias favoring male
students in perceptions of competence and hireability, salary
conferral, and willingness to mentor (hypothesis A); Faculty gender would not influence this gender bias (hypothesis B); Hiring

These results support hypothesis A.
In support of hypothesis B, faculty gender did not affect bias
(Table 1). Tests of simple effects (all d < 0.33) indicated that
female faculty participants did not rate the female student as
more competent [t(62) = 0.06, P = 0.95] or hireable [t(62) = 0.41,
P = 0.69] than did male faculty. Female faculty also did not
offer more mentoring [t(62) = 0.29, P = 0.77] or a higher salary
[t(61) = 1.14, P = 0.26] to the female student than did their male

But is it a problem now?
•
•
•
•

In the past this was a problem
And it still is

An almost random example

Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor
male students

•

Proceedings National Academy of
Science, USA, 2012

•

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/
2012/09/14/1211286109
|
2 of 6

•

•

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1211286109

The change from the past is that gender
biases are now subtle


Fig. 1. Competence, hireability, and mentoring by student gender condition
(collapsed across faculty gender). All student gender differences are significant
(P < 0.001). Scales range from 1 to 7, with higher numbers reflecting a greater
extent of each variable. Error bars represent SEs. nmale student condition = 63,
nfemale student condition = 64.

Male students were
ranked higher in
everything

Moss-Racusin et al.

•

The only difference
between the male and
female students was the
names on CVs

The lowest difficulty
setting there is
•
•
•

It’s really hard for straight white men to
understand the problem

•

sadly it’s really easy for women to

John Scalzi came up with a brilliant analogy
Being a straight white male is the lowest
difficulty setting there is in the game of life
“You can lose playing on the lowest difficulty
setting. The lowest difficulty setting is still the
easiest setting to win on. The player who
plays on the “Gay Minority Female” setting?
Hardcore.”

John Scalzi, http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-whitemale-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/

The Petrie Multiplier
• A thought experiment
• Let’s assume no gender difference in sexism
• 20:20
• Say 20% of people act like jerks to the
opposite sex

• And 20% of CS people are women

• We will see amazing difference in result

The Petrie Multiplier
• Invented by Karen Petrie
• though named by me!
• Senior Lecturer in CS at Dundee
• Former Chair of BCS Women
• And CS graduate of St Andrews

Let’s start with
32 men.


Let’s start with
32 men.
In pink of course


Let’s start with
32 men.
In pink of course
The boy’s colour


“The generally accepted rule is pink for
the boys, and blue for the girls.The
reason is that pink, being a more
decided and stronger color, is more
suitable for the boy, while blue, which is
more delicate and dainty, is prettier for
the girl.”
-- Earnshaw's Infants' Department
1918


“The generally accepted rule is pink for
the boys, and blue for the girls.”
Something to remember next time
you catch yourself thinking some
gender difference is inherent


Let’s add 8
women.


Let’s add 8
women.
In blue


Now add 8
more men
who act like
jerks to women


And 2
more women
who act like
jerks to men


Remember!
Each gender is
equally jerky to
the other


Let’s see what
happens.


Some man
acted like a
jerk to some
woman.
Not good.


Some woman
acted like a
jerk to some
man.
Also not good.


Man
Lucky
Typical
Unlucky

Woman

Man

Woman

Lucky
Typical

0.35 5.6

Unlucky

04

39

• 0.35 bad experiences per man
• 5.6 bad experiences per woman
• 16x as many
• Ratio of bad experiences is square of gender
ratio

• 80% men : 20% women = 4 : 1

Petrie Multiplier:
Lessons
•

With women underrepresented

•

Women experience amazing disparity of sexism

•
•
•

With no assumption that men are worse

•

are not attacks on men


So attacks on sexism in CS...
... and statements that women get it worse than
men

What can we do?
• We can’t change today the gender
imbalance

• We can make CS a much nicer place for
women to be

• We can do three simple things...

Three Simple Things
1. Don’t be a jerk to women in CS
2. Don’t use sexist language
3. Understand that it’s not you who decides
if you are doing 1 or 2.


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to disabled in CS
2. Don’t use ableist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to non-whites in CS
2. Don’t use racist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to people from deprived
backgrounds in CS
2. Don’t use classist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to mentally ill people in
CS
2. Don’t use mentalist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to transgendered people
in CS
2. Don’t use cissexist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to older people in CS
2. Don’t use ageist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to gay people in CS
2. Don’t use homophobic language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to religious people in CS
2. Don’t use religionist language


Not just women
1. Don’t be a jerk to irreligious people in
CS
2. Don’t use religionist language


None of the above?
•

•


Even if it was ok to be a jerk to a ...

•

Straight white privileged non-disabled non-mentally-ill
cisgendered male of about your age and your religion

•

(it’s not ok to be a jerk to him)

How do you know he’s all those things?

•
•

e.g. I’m obviously older than you...
is it so obvious I’m on antidepressants?

•

http://www.depressedacademics.blogspot.com

Back to Women
• Going to return to focus on women
• Not because other groups are not
important

• Just to make it easier to talk speciﬁcally


1. Don’t be a jerk
•
•

This is really simple to understand
Unfortunately being a jerk to women in CS is
really widespread

•
•


I’m not going to provide examples
it would take too long

•

seriously, it’s almost unimaginable how long it
would take

2. Don’t use sexist
language
•
•

•

I mean this in two ways
Don’t use language that implies CS people are men

•

leads to the Computer Scientist and the
Cleaner

•
•

leads to females feeling excluded
and subtle biases as in the PNAS paper

Don’t engage in sexist “banter”

3.You don’t get to
decide...
3. Understand that it’s not you who decides if you are doing 1 or 2.

•
•

This is really hard to understand

•
•

Tough! Guess what, they were offended!

Maybe you think somebody shouldn’t be offended when they tell
you they are
You only have two options

•
•
•


“I’m sorry, but I deeply believe that X is true so I stand by
what I said”
“I’m sorry, I’ll try harder not to say things like that in future”

Never say “Hey, it’s only banter”

It’s not “banter”
•

"Banter" is apparently a free pass: I can insult you, but you're not
allowed to be insulted, because "it's only banter". I can be
obscene, but you can't be offended, because "it's only banter".
No. If you're a grown-up, you know that your offensiveness may
offend, and you either accept that or you apologise and don't do
it again. Saying "it's only banter" makes you not only an idiot, but
an idiot who can't take responsibility for his own jokes.
Tom Chivers,
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100141906/
if-you-like-banter-you-are-an-idiot/


The Hofstadter Analogy
•

If you’re not sure if language is sexist...

•
•

If the result is obviously racist

•
•
•

... the original was probably sexist ...
unless there’s some very good reason the analogy doesn’t work

E.g. A male only club made the rules of golf, including for women

•
•

... swap men and women for black and white

Would it have been ok that a white only club made the rules of
golf, including the rules for black people?

I learnt this from:

•

“A person paper on the purity of language”, Doug Hofstadter

•


http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.html

Allies
• We need male computer scientists to be
“Allies”

• Men who think it’s important that both
women and men are treated right in
Computer Science

• http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Allies

Links and Resources
•
•


School of Computer Science, Women in Computing Group

•

self-organised, unofﬁcial

University Policies and Links

•
•
•
•
•
•

Advice and Support Centre
University Harrassment and Bullying Policy
Student Non-academic Misconduct Policy
Disability Equality Scheme
Policy on Trans Students & Staff
How to Lodge a Complaint

Do not get me wrong...
Whether you are disadvantaged or privileged or both...
I want you to have a fabulous time at St Andrews
I want you to get a ﬁrst
I want you to have an amazing career in or out of computing
I want the same for every member of groups at a disadvantage
And I want us all to work towards them not being at a disadvantage


The Computer Scientist and the Cleaner v5

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