News Center Maine interviews Rheingans for feature on women in computing
Penny Rheingans, director of the School of Computing and Information Science at the University of Maine, spoke with News Center Maine for the report, “Closing the gap: Women in computing.” Nationally and in Maine, there is a trend showing fewer women are going to college for computer science degrees, according to the report. The reason for the gap, according to Rheingans, is mainly about perception. She said there have been fewer female role models in advertising and fewer chances given to women in grade school. Organizations such as the National Center for Women and Information Technology are working to change those perceptions, News Center Maine reported. “It’s a really exciting time for computing right now because the ways in which computing can influence the world, the ways in which computing can be a tool for doing good are so much more abundant now and so much clearer that there is a power in that that counterbalances this pressure, this societal image of, ‘You don’t want to be a geek,’’ Rheingans said. “You can take that, you can own it and you can change the world with it, and that’s really powerful.”