A taste for the abstract sciences in general and above all the mysteries of numbers is excessively rare; one is not astonished at it; the enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal themselves only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a person of the sex which, according to our customs and prejudices, must encounter infinitely more difficulties than men to familiarize herself with these thorny researches, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, then without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and a superior genius --- Gauss to mathematician Sophie Germain.
As the data from women's career studies and anecdotes from personal experiences of women professionals begin to accrue, one of the questions that arises is not `Why are there so few successful professional women?', but rather, `How have so many been able to survive the vicissitudes on each rung of the career ladder?' --- Dorothy Zinberg
There are a large number of factors that discourage women from becoming computer scientists and computer professionals. From early childhood, females are treated differently from males, and, to become computer scientists, they often have to face problems that males do not have to deal with. In this chapter, I suggest how people can work to counteract these effects. Because this chapter is based so heavily on material earlier in the report, I recommend that earlier chapters be read first.