WisCon, in addition to being the annual Wisconsin SF convention, is the world's leading (oldest and biggest) feminist SF convention. They have a separate academic track, and one presenter today described a finding in a European Union study that there is a correlation between access to the Internet and a decision not to major in Computer Science (but only Comp Sci, not Engineering, Math, etc.). The author's theory is that women's exposure to what she describes as "the prominent Western kyriarchal computing culture visible on the Internet" "becomes central to the decision" not to enroll in Computer Science classes.

The author, as I said, has agreed to send me a copy of the final paper, so that I may share it with the GENDERGAP folks, as I feel it's deeply relevant to our task here.

(For those of you who have never been to a science fiction convention, and have perhaps been misled by what the mass media portrays as "science fiction conventions": THIS is part of what we do here in Wisconsin; and there's not a pair of Spock ears in sight.)