We started by looking at at the representation of women in AI publications and conferences. While these statistics do not necessarily indicate what proportion of AI scientists overall are women, they do provide a context for examining how women are faring generally in AI. Women represented
The representation of women in academic institutions varies tremendously, and the numbers mean different things at different institutions (0 out of 4 isn't the same as 0 out of 40). Many computer science departments have no female professors, while one has more women than men. It was impossible to count the percentage of women among AI graduate students, since schools handle these numbers differently. However, a few reported that around 10-15 percent of their computer science graduate students are women, and that the number of female applicants has decreased in the last two years.
The women we interviewed pointed to a particular aspect of AI that might have reduced the number of women in the field. A necessary part of early AI research was Lisp. Working with Lisp required Lisp machines, which were only found at the first and few schools involved in AI, expensive schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Carnegie Mellon University. A small group of men at these institutions were thus the first members of AI's ``inner circle.'' AI has recently been applied to other, less expensive platforms, and the inner circle's proteges (and their students) have begun to spread out to other private and public schools across the country. Yet many still feel on the outside of the circle.
One senior interviewee characterized these early years of AI as ``far out'' and its adherents, struggling to earn credibility, as arrogant. ``It was like a frontier atmosphere: it drew people who could compete and go out on a limb without being right. This usually isn't women. The women who `made' it were the ones who had advisors in the original inner circle. Besides, early on, more women than men were horrified by the idea of building a machine as intelligent as people.''
But as AI has since developed, some women now see it as a ``natural'' place for their research: ``AI has more cognitive aspects than does computer science. Since women are generally more introspective, attuned to psychology, and more verbal than men, AI has a natural draw.'' Another woman who believes there are more women in AI than in computer science said it's because AI is a newer field ``with less baggage,'' so it offers good careers with fewer stereotypes. Other women noted the ``scruffiness'' of AI and its connections to ``softer'' sciences like education and psychology. On the other hand, the stereotypes often break down: One woman noted that her female natural-language colleagues come from heavy math and linguistics backgrounds.