[acbart]

The best role-models are not far away or long-dead, they are nearby and immediate. You can see their life and interact with them. Of course, there's also the problem of how many potential role models for women in computing don't really provide the level of support that their students expect (they got there without role models, so why should they hold their students hands?).

It's actually difficult to provide citations for the obvious problem of lack-of-role-models, because it's so commonly accepted in the community. I attended Grace Hopper '13 last year, and it's just recognized as a given. When I go through research papers from the past 5-10 years, they start off by just recognizing that its a known problem and then move onto subproblems or their new solution. Unfortunately, I don't really have the time to go mining the work that led to this problem being recognized. Still, I can recommend a book, "Unlocking the Clubhouse" http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse which should cover this!