Pair-Programming Helps Female Computer Science Students

Pair-programming has been found to be very beneficial in educational settings. Students who pair in their introductory programming course are more confident, have greater course completion and pass rates, and are more likely to persist in computer-related majors. Although pairing helps all students, we believe that it is particularly beneficial for women because it addresses several significant factors that limit women's participation in computer science. We provide reasons for our belief that pair-programming helps women persist in these majors. We also repeat, with special emphasis on the impact on women, some details published elsewhere regarding our experiments on pair-programming with college and university students. Additionally, we provide new data that supports our original findings.