Focus on Women in Computer Science

The University of British Columbia (UBC) has been active in its attempts to increase female enrollment in the Department of Computer Science. Currently, female enrollment in computer science is well below the average across all disciplines at UBC (56.7\% in 2002) at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Computer Science Department, along with the Focus on Women in Computer Science (FoWCS) committee is currently involved in a variety of initiatives to eliminate this gender gap. Departmental initiatives vary from an Alternative Routes to Computing (ARC) degree program for students with non-technical backgrounds to a Computer Science Learning Centre (CSLC) available to first-year undergraduate students. The committee initiatives include information gathering, information sharing, support and networking, social activities as well as a high school outreach program. In this paper, we discuss the motivation and the current progress of each of these initiatives.