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Where are the Ladies in Tech?

jennifer

My colleague Kibra sent me a New York Times article this morning that really caught my eye. The article cites a study published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that found, among teenagers ages 12 to 17, more girls blog or create their own websites than boys.

I have to say that I’m not very surprised at the findings of the study simply because I was one of those girls. As a teenager during the initial Internet boom, I spent most of my afternoons tying up my parents’ phone line using dial-up Internet to create my own websites. Initially just a means of passing time, my interest in creating my own sites led me to begin freelance web designing for others and to study computer science at the university level.

However, as the article notes, the path I chose is out of the ordinary:

But even though girls surpass boys as Web content creators, the imbalance among adults in the computer industry remains. Women hold about 27 percent of jobs in computer and mathematical occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This again does not surprise me. I remember noticing how, as I made my way into the advanced computer science courses in college, the number of female students drastically declined. In my senior year, I was either the only female student in my classes or one of two. Additionally, my professors were predominantly male; in my four years of study I only had two female computer science instructors.

The article describes some possible reasons behind this disparity:

Scholars who study computer science say there are several reasons for the dearth of women: introductory courses are often uninspiring; it is difficult to shake existing stereotypes about men excelling in the sciences; and there are few female role models.

As a woman who successfully completed a computer science curriculum, I do not agree with these conclusions. The lack of women at the university level is more a result of little effort to engage women in technology at earlier levels of education. Case in point, I attended a private high school for girls where a course that taught touch-typing skills was mandatory but an Advanced Placement Computer Science course was not even offered. Though implicit, traditional roles of gender come into play here—but, as I have a lot to say about the subject, that’s clearly a post for another day.

Despite the lack of numbers, the women who are in technology are becoming more vocal. Women Who Tech is a great example of women in the industry mobilizing to showcase their contributions. Also significant is the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology that honors both men and women who make significant changes in the world for women and technology.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Posted on February 21, 2008