Work in Progress - Women in Computer Science: Why There is No Problem in One Former Soviet Republic

It is well known that women's involvement in computer science is very low in the USA and many other countries around the world. However, there are countries, such as republics of former Soviet Union that have well represented female populations in CS. In 2005 we started a study involving former Soviet countries and the USA. Our goal was (i) to identify the factors that attract women to CS in former Soviet countries, and find out whether these factors exist and/or work in the USA, (ii) to find out whether the well known negative factors that affect women in the USA exist and/or work in those countries. We have conducted an extensive series of surveys and interviews in one former Soviet country, the Republic of Armenia, followed by a round of matching surveys in the USA. This paper presents a summary of the preliminary results of our study