According to the survey results, with regards to the first research question (gender gap changes for computer science college students from 1971-2011):

- men were more likely than women to study computer science
- however, interest in computer science would increase from the 70s to the 80s, diminished until the mid to late 90s to 2000 where interest would peak again, then decrease again from that point on until 2011
- for women, there was interest in computer science that peaked in 1980, before continuously dropping over time until 2011

Results for Question 1 in Gender Gap Study

For the second research question (why students chose to major in computer science and what changes there were or not over time regarding said reasons), results indicated, for both genders and that were consistent over time:

- students with fathers in STEM careers and who listed money as an important value were more likely to join the computer science major
- Asian and African American students were more likely to be computer science students than White students
- students intending to be social activists, join research universities, or had the goal of attaining a master's degree in law or a degree in medicine were less likely to join the computer science major

Results for Question 2 in Gender Gap Study- Stable Reasons for Both Genders

The third question involved the gender gap difference in computer science major students:

- it became increasingly difficult to explain the reasons regarding this gender gap in computer science students because the reasons to study this major or not for students kept changing over time
- three variables have emerged that are considered the biggest reasons for this gender gap in computer science
- the most important variable is the student's self-identity regarding math ability (women were likely to rate themselves lower in math ability than men), which became less salient as a reason over time but still remains the most influential variable in the gender gap
- student's desire to contribute to the sciences was another variable, in which women saw this as less important of a value to hold compared to men
- students who cared about social activism were less likely to join the computer science major and female students were more likely to see social activism as important compared to men

Results for Question 3 in Gender Gap Study

The focus of this study was to answer the following questions:

- the gender gap changes for incoming computer science college students (from 1971-2011)
- why do male and female students choose to major in computer science and has there been any changes in these reasons over time
- what influence does gender difference in students' attributes (i.e. personal values, background in family and education, etc.) have on the decision to study computer science and has this changed over time

University of California, Berkeley

The researchers used the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey to understand why the computer science students chose to study in this field and what influenced them. This was also a longitudinal study that allowed the analysis of computer science students over four decades. Over 8 million students from 1,225 colleges for the years 1971 to 2011 were involved in this survey.

A Gender Gap Study of Computer Science- Methods

Linda J. Sax, Kathleen J. Lehman, Jerry A. Jacobs, M. Allison Kanny, Gloria Lim, Laura Monje-Paulson & Hilary B. Zimmerman (2017) Anatomy of an Enduring Gender Gap: The Evolution of Women’s Participation in Computer Science, The Journal of Higher Education, 88:2, 258-293, DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2016.1257306

Anatomy of an Enduing Gender Gap: The Evolution of Women's Participation in Computer Science

A Gender Gap Study of Computer Science- Questions

The research study article took note of the variables that were used to contextualize what was being analyzed as part of the longitudinal survey (the concepts that were part of the analysis). 

- personal characteristics/background contexts: the attributes that would lead to the student's ideas about their future career
- learning experiences: this was contextualized by the variable of the student's grade point average during their high school years
- self-efficacy: the variable used was the math self-concept of the student as the closest variable to embody this concept
- outcome expectations: the variables used for this concept were anything that indicated success or persistence in the career field
- interest: any goal that seemed to suggest the encouragement or discouragement of choosing a certain career path
- contextual influences: any variable that shows career choices being affected by outside concerns (i.e. financial difficulties)
- choice goals: the academic and career goals that could influence students to choose a major (that might or might not be a STEM major)

Variables of the Study

The article lists some of their own implications for the results of the study for future research and changes:

- the results for computer science, especially about the gender gap differences in students, seem to be different than that of other STEM majors, so it's important to keep note of the results of each study
- studying gender gap differences in computer science over time is important, because the longitudinal results can yield results that can provide better context as to why the gender gap exists in this STEM major
- these results can help pinpoint what can be done to attract more female students to computer science, especially in making this academic major more appealing to women by addressing the reasons they are more or less likely to study computer science

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