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(The header and first paragraph below is copied from Gender disparity in computing)

Stereotyping computer scientists

Other research examines that undergraduates' stereotype of the people in computer science and how changing this stereotype through media can influence women's interest in computer science. Through this study they concluded that the image of computer science majors that is most prevalent in popular culture and in the minds of current undergraduates is someone who is highly intelligent, primarily obsessed with computers, and socially unskilled. This image can be considered to contrast with the more people-oriented, traditionally feminine image. According to this study, students continue to generate and propagate this stereotype when asked to describe people in computer science. Based on the results of their experiment based on this idea, they took a group of women and men undergraduates and had them read a stereotypical article and a non-stereotypical article. They found that women who read the non-stereotypical article were much more interested in computer science than those who read the article with the above-mentioned stereotypical computer science student. Overall, they concluded that the underrepresentation of women in computing not due to women's lack of interest. The study contests the perception that college major decisions are free choices, instead they discuss the implications that the major decisions are more constrained by the prevalent stereotypes. This has a negative consequence such that it prevents women from developing an interest in these technical fields. The finding suggests that the stereotypical image of the computer scientists is unattractive to women who would otherwise be interested if presented with a true representation or role model from the computer science field.

There is also racial stereotyping occurring with computer scientists being thought of as white or Asian males. This can been seen by the preference of Silicon Valley for primarily only hiring males of those ethnicities. This makes it especially difficult for women of outside of those ethnicities to get hired, because they fail to match either half of the stereotype. Nonetheless, it has been found that a women’s race is less likely to affect the probability of her choosing computing or a related field. (Source 3)

Some cases that subvert the stereotype of typical people in computing include the person coming from a family that is already involved in computing or a related field. Also, coming from a family of a higher socioeconomic status is correlated to a higher likelihood of women choosing computing or a related field. Yet, many computing companies only search for employees from prestigious schools, which leaves fewer opportunities.