A new perspective

SEATTLE -- For more than a decade, academics and technology executives have been frowning at the widening gender gap in computer science. Everyone has a theory but no one has managed to attract many more women.

Now, some computer science researchers say one solution may lie in the design of software itself -- even programs regular people use every day.

Laura Beckwith, a new computer science Ph.D. from Oregon State University, and her adviser, Margaret Burnett, specialize in studying the way people use computers to solve everyday problems -- like adding formulas to spreadsheets, animation to Web sites and styles to word processing documents.

A couple of years ago they stumbled upon an intriguing tidbit: Men, it seemed, were more likely than women to use advanced software features, specifically ones that help users find and fix errors. Programmers call this "debugging," and it's a crucial step in building programs that work.

Beckwith investigated why women and men interact so differently with the same software. One theory grabbed her attention: High confidence correlates with success. Most studies indicated women, even ones who study computer science, have less confidence than men in their computer skills.

Beckwith started by asking a group of women and men whether they could find and fix errors in spreadsheets filled with formulas. Then, she sat them down in front of a computer with two spreadsheets.

Beckwith buried five errors in each one without telling the participants. She gave them a time limit and asked them to test all the formulas and fix any bugs.

The program included a debugging feature that helped the users spot miscalculations. The key to success was using this feature. Both men and women who used it were better at finding and fixing the bugs.

It was the initial level of confidence expressed by the participants that played a much different role for the genders. For men, it didn't really matter whether they believed they could complete the task. Some men with low confidence used the debugging tools, and some with high confidence didn't.

But for the women, only those who believed they could do the task successfully used the automated debugging tools. The women with lower confidence in the task relied instead on editing formulas one by one and ended up introducing more bugs.

Beckwith explored whether a gentler presentation of the debugging tool would appeal to women.

In the first study, the debugging tool let users mark values "right" or "wrong." To mark something as wrong, participants had to right-click with the mouse.

In later studies, Beckwith added two more choices: "seems right maybe" and "seems wrong maybe." The "maybe" buttons worked just like the more certain-seeming ones but used softer colors to indicate possible errors. She also changed the program so that no one needed to right-click, something less-experienced computer users are reluctant to do.

When she tallied up the numbers, she found in some experiments women used some form of the debugging feature almost as often as men did. In others, they used the tools even more.

Making complex everyday software more accessible to women could help get more interested in computer science, Beckwith and Burnett say.

The percentage of bachelor's degrees in computer science awarded to women fell from 37 percent in 1985 to just 22 percent in 2005, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, even as women made gains in other science and math-based fields.

Most gender-gap theories today have more to do with computer science's image as a haven for solitary male geeks. Industry groups and high-tech companies tend to suggest remedies like mentoring girls and changing computer science education to better show how the field is connected to everyday topics thought to be of more interest to girls, like media, sharing and communicating.

While Beckwith and Burnett acknowledge that, they say their research adds a new dimension.

"The first time you as a girl sit down at a computer to do some real problem solving," Burnett said, "and the software you're using isn't a good fit for your learning style, your problem solving style, how likely are you to be to say, 'I'm going to grow up and be a computer scientist?' "

The software industry is paying attention. Beckwith's first job will be at Microsoft.

There, she'll put her research experience to work helping the team that designs software for programmers. That group has never given much thought to the user's gender, said Susan Todd, Beckwith's boss-to-be.

"In the past, since we concentrate so much on developers -- and as you know, there are not a lot of women developers -- we haven't really gone in that direction," Todd said.

But don't expect "Excel for Women" any time soon.

As Burnett said, "We're not advocating a pink version of blue version of software, because that wouldn't fit anybody."