Women in Computer Science: The Lost Decades
The share of computer-science bachelor's degrees earned by women, annual since 1964. The line rises with the field's first boom to a 37% peak in 1984, then falls for two straight decades — through the exact years the field became the economy's center of gravity — bottoming under 18% before a slow recovery to the low twenties. No other major field shows a reversal this large.
What does it show?
Women earned 37% of computer-science degrees in 1984 — then the share fell for two decades to 18%, and has recovered only to the low twenties. The field's biggest boom has run on a workforce that remains four-fifths male.
Methodology
Bachelor's degrees in computer and information sciences conferred to women as a share of the field's total, computed from the male and female counts in Digest table 325.35, annual since 1964-65. The 1984 peak and long slide are among the most-studied gender patterns in U.S. higher education.