Frieze studied English literature for a while at the University of London before moving into cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon, eventually earning her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Cultural Studies in Computer Science. Her 2007 dissertation, The critical role of culture and environment as determinants of women's participation in computer science, was supervised by Lenore Blum. She has taught at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital School in England and in the English department at Carnegie Mellon before coming to work for the School of Computer Science. Women@SCS, one of the organizations Frieze directs at Carnegie Mellon, is based on the guiding premise of leveling the playing field, working to ensure that women receive the same social, networking, mentoring, and professional opportunities, that are more readily available to the majority male peers. She also works on diversity and inclusion through BiasBusters@CMU, an academic interactive program aiming to raise awareness of bias and mitigate the harmful effects of unconscious bias on campus.
Books
With Jeria Quesenberry, Frieze is a co-author of the book Kicking Butt in Computer Science: Women in Computing at Carnegie Mellon University. The book describes Carnegie Mellon's successful work to attract and retain female students in Carnegie Mellon's computer science major by focusing on the culture of computing rather than by making changes to the computer science curriculum. Frieze and Quesenberry are co-editors of the book Cracking the Digital Ceiling: Women in Computing Around the World,Cambridge University Press, 2020. This collection of global perspectives challenges the view that men are more suited to computing fields than women, a belief often perpetuated as an explanation for women’s low participation in computing in the USA. By providing an insider look at how different cultures from all continents around the world impact the experiences of women in computing, the book introduces readers to theories and evidence that support the need to turn to cultural and environmental factors, rather than innate potential, to understand what determines women’s participation in computing. The book is a wakeup call to examine the obstacles and catalysts within various cultures and environments that help determine women's participation in this rapidly growing field.
Recognition
Frieze won the A. Nico Habermann Award of the Computing Research Association in 2017. The award citation commended her for "devoting nearly two decades to promoting diversity and inclusiveness in computing", for publishing "valuable research towards understanding the challenges diverse populations face", and for helping to bring the number of women majoring in computer science at Carnegie Mellon close to 50%, "far above the national average".
Personal life
Frieze grew up in a coal mining village in Nottinghamshire, England, and was the first in her family to go to college. Frieze is married to mathematician Alan M. Frieze. They have two adult children and four grandchildren.
