Kunin: Computer Games

Print More
MP3

(Host) As the graduates of 2012 join the rest of the working world,
former Vermont governor and commentator Madeleine Kunin wishes that more
women were attracted to careers in computer science.

(Kunin)
Why are video games so violent? The ones I’ve seen remind me of the 4th
of July, with everything exploding, buildings, cars, airplanes, men and
women. Kill, kill, and kill for sport and entertainment.

Video
games seem to be mostly a boy thing – viewed by young boys and created
by big boys. And I believe that if more videos games were created by
women, the violence in these games – especially against women – would be
rapidly toned down.

There’s one catch, however. To design these
games women have to become computer scientists. Yes, they have to enter
a field, which has increasingly been dominated by men, and it’s getting
worse, not better. While enrollment in math, science and even
engineering has been growing for women, computer science is moving the
other way. In 1985, 38 percent of computer scientists were women. That
figure has plummeted to 17 percent in some years.

A group of
Vermont women formed a new networking organization for women in science,
math and engineering and finance to encourage more women. A group of
Harvard students recently revived a long dormant organization, Women in
Computer Sciences. Why?

They discovered that the percentage of
women in the field fell from 42 percent in the class of 2013, to 22
percent in the class of 2014.

Why is computer science a good
field for women? For one thing, that’s where the jobs are, and for
another, the pay is better than for many jobs, and finally, it’s easier
to combine career and family.

But that’s not all. Yes you may get a job at Facebook or Microsoft, but there’s more at stake.

"If
you completely shut out the entire feminine perspective on the world,
you are going to have a different set of products, "the president of
Harvey Mudd College , Maria Klawe, told Judy Woodruff on the PBS News
Hour. The presence of women in computer labs will determine what kind of
medical devices get created, what kind of products we buy.

Boys
often get attracted to computer science because they like to watch
video games. When women begin to create those games, more girls will
begin to watch them too, and by the time they start college, they’ll be
hooked, not only on playing games, but also on a career in computer
science. This is how greater gender equality can enrich all of our
lives.

Comments are closed.