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

University of California, Berkeley

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

A Gender Gap Study of Computer Science- Questions

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

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

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