It's amazing how intensely partisan departments get. Certain majors attract certain types of folks, I guess, and it's not too surprising that Geography is overwhelmingly liberal but it might be a little surprising to some that Computer Science is dominated half'nhalf by Conservative and Libertarian members.
It's enough to make me feel isolated merely for not sharing beliefs on God and family values and marriage (which is fucking irrelevant). I end up avoiding broaching such topics, staying away from things I might socially ask questions about ("So what do you mean Brian, about different ideas about marriage?"), and just stay mum.
I'm already in a recognized minority: I was enrolled in Intro. to Computer Graphics for two weeks in which I was the only woman out of 15 people, my Computer Organization class (/required/ for the major) has only 2 out of 40-some-odd--including myself. The more radical voices in my head scream that this is how the dominant majority white male is gonna getcha down! Gotta watch out! Make sure you aren't put in your place by yourself, be wary! Be loud!
The point is not really to be vocal and share your opinions, though. It's not gonna do me much good other than isolate me further, I feel. "Oh, there's the /strange/ girl". And I mean, to a certain extent I can't avoid that, but for that extent it's okay.
Politics, though, I'm avoiding. Talk is cheap, I guess, and certain politics just really have not much at all to do with CS. I end up just defending things when they come up, grabbing aluminum cans out of the recycling bin, and avoiding discussing anything more controversial than liking Facebook, running Windows, and using Cygwin over Putty.
People seem very divided on the visibility of women or lack thereof. I've spoken to undergrads who barely notice, undergrads who really care and wish there were more (ones who notice and don't care), professors who never bring it up, professors who schedule appointments with me to try to remedy this.
A lot of the women seem pretty Software-Engineering-Business-Mangement track focused. I've spoken to 3 or 4 who plan on getting out into the industry right away and managing projects as opposed to coding. They all seem pretty set on it: graduating early, doubling with Business Management, doing 25 hr. internships during the school year. It's not that we women aren't motivated to do CS, I just that generally the ones who end up here are looking for a career, not neccesarily here looking to code for fun. Not many undergrads period are future-thinking enough to be thinking of a career already. The guys in the department are here because computers were a hobby and "hey, why not." It's a radical difference.
Starcraft LAN parties aren't going to attract this crowd to sticking around longer than they need to around Sitterson, but talks from industry women about management & gender in a technology field will.
It seems like maybe this crowd of women sticks around Sitterson the longest, though, because you need to be that driven to slog through. Your drive can come from a lot of things: passion, desire for career, whatever, but it's pretty painful sitting in a classroom with people discussing things you have NO CLUE about, talking about coding since 4th grade when you've been doing it for 4 months, and general tech-geek-isolating you out. What they don't tell you, what no one tells you, is that you'll catch up. Promise. They're just boasting and you can find out everything they know. On google.
I guess I have a lot to say on that front. I've been planning on essay-ing it up for a while. Divided into a few sections: "Why aren't there more women?" "Advice for women considering CS" "Advice for men wanting more women in CS"
