V1 of The Computer Scientist and The Cleaner

The Computer
Scientist and the
Cleaner
Ian Gent
University of St Andrews
This is a DRAFT talk
For more context please visit:
http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-computer-scientist-and-cleaner.html
Sunday, 6 October 13

... or ...

If I can make it here

A short history of
sexism in St Andrews

The most important
problem for computing

Don’t worry your pretty
little head about it

If you’re not
uncomfortable for the
next few minutes I’m
not doing my job

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

What is this talk, really?
These are my personal opinions, not based on School
or University policy
Not a part of CS1002 in any sense, just 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 borrowed his car
and then crashed it. But their marriage was
strong and he forgave her.”

and the Cleaner
“One of their few arguments was when she
borrowed his car and then crashed it.”
• Let me ask you a question.
• Who crashed the car?
• Was it the computer scientist or the
cleaner?

and the Cleaner
“One of their few arguments was when she
borrowed his car and then crashed it.”
• Let me ask Google a question.
• Who crashed the car?
• Was it the computer scientist or the
cleaner?

C
Unmoderated image search for
“Computer Scientist”

Unmoderated image search for
“Cleaner”

Who crashed the car?
“The computer scientist and the cleaner had
a long and happy marriage. One of their few
arguments was when she crashed his car
while borrowing it. But their marriage was
strong and he forgave her.”
• Look inside your brain
• Did you think the woman was the
cleaner?

If I Can Make it Here...
Being appointed Professor at St Andrews is the high
point of my academic career
Walking around this beautiful town I thought ...

If I Can Make it Here...
If I can make it here, I can make it in any ...
small seaside town with entrenched sexist attitudes

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 MBE, now at QMUL
• Yes, a 600 year old University’s ﬁrst female
professor hasn’t retired yet!
• For 579 years we didn’t have a female Prof
• 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

Gender Balance
CS Lecturers

Gender Balance
CS Senior Lecturers & Readers

Gender Balance
CS Professors

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?
There are many TERRIBLE reasons for having
more women in computer science.
I only know of two good ones, but they are
overpoweringly good.

Why the most important
problem?
Two good reasons we need more women in
computer science
• It’s right
• Computer Science would be better

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
• The change from the past is that gender
biases are now subtle
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’ preex-
isting subtle bias against women. We reasoned that pervasive
cultural messages regarding women’s lack of competence in sci-
ence 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 to-
ward 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 sci-
ence. 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 gen-
der 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
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.
2 of 6 | www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1211286109 Moss-Racusin et al.
• Male students were
ranked higher in
everything
• The only difference
between the male and
female students was the
names on CVs

The lowest difficulty
setting there is
John Scalzi, http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-
male-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.”

little head about it.
This is a
picture of two
computer
scientists
preparing for
an event to get
more women
into computer
science
The woman
on the right is
the smartest
person I
know

• Some guy’s computer in a lab was stuck
• She tried to tell him that this computer
needed to be left alone for 15 minutes
• Then it would come back to life
• All the regulars in the lab knew this
• He kept hitting keys
• cos what would she know?
• In frustration she said...
• “Just leave it alone for 15 minutes ...
... and don’t worry your pretty little head about it”

• Two lessons to take away
from this story
• Don’t assume that a woman’s
advice is wrong or useless
• Don’t say things which are
patronising to women

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
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.

Don’t be a jerk
• This is really simple to understand
• Unfortunately being a jerk to women in CS
is really widespread
• (I mean in the world, not St Andrews)
• I’m not going to provide examples
• it would take too long

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”

Flip a coin!
• Need a user in your report?
Should she be a female or
should he be male?
• Do what I did once...
• Use FLORIN-66!
• Fast Location Of Random
Integral Numbers
• My best backronym ever!
• do wish it was FLORBN
though (Binary) image http://onewebby.com
This is a 1966 ﬂorin, a pre-decimalisation coin

The Hofstadter Analogy
• If you’re not sure if language is sexist...
• ... swap men and women for black and white
• If the result is obviously racist
• ... the original was probably sexist
• A St Andrews example...
• Was it ok that a male only club made the rules of golf, including
for women?
• 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

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
• Maybe you think somebody shouldn’t be offended when they tell
you they are
• Tough! Guess what, they were offended!
• 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/

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

Not just gender
• I’ve focussed on gender today
• But same could be said for disability, people
with mental health problems, race, sexual
orientation, age...

Do not get me wrong...
If you are a male (straight white or otherwise), ...
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 just want the same for women and other groups at a disadvantage
And I want us all to work towards them not being at a disadvantage

V1 of The Computer Scientist and The Cleaner

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