Is there really a gender gap in the tech industry?

Source.

I had no idea that Computer Science degrees were so male-dominated, that's why this article grabbed my attention.

To Jocelyn Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook, the math is stark.

Less than 20% of the bachelor's degrees in computer science go to women, according to federal statistics. By comparison, nearly 60% of all bachelor's degrees are awarded to graduating females.

She blames the lack of role models both in popular culture and in day-to-day life as a key reason for the disparity.

"The reason there aren't more women computer scientists is because there aren't more women computer scientists," she said.

Thoughts? Would it not be an improvement to have more women within the field?

Seems to me a business would want to hire more female talent, especially if they are trying to make their products and services appeal to women.

Engineering and other physical sciences have the same kind of gender gap. A lot of different reasons for this have been postulated, including taking time off to raise a family, that women lean towards biology if they have an interest in science, and difficulty breaking into a male-dominated industry.

I think the gap has been slowly shrinking over the last few decades. I don't know if it will be completely equal any time soon.

its actually very true in my two years of IT in college i had 1 girl my 1st year but she dropped out and then i had another my second year. in classes as large as 40 or so. my teachers while have say nothing concrete to back it up openly admit computer science and IT are male dominate fields and that the turnover for female students in college & university is incredibly low. and after two years of school i say id beleive them at work in my whole department we have 0 female employee's and going across the hall to the everyday consumer side of the customer support cetner id say less than 15% of em are women.. easily.

while im uncertain what the work environments and classes are like in comp sci. due to some overlap in education in both fields and the fact that both require similar skill sets. its safe for me to assume that the reason for both being male dominate work environments is similar.

i think one reason is simply that its looked negatively on in the female mass medium to be incredibly skilled with technology. social networking, and being a trendy.. thats what gets force fe.. i mean sold to the female demographic as being technically relevant in their world. the rest might as well be a foreign tech made by aliens

kind of a sad thing really..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE&ob=av2e

Certainly seems like it. The math and science fields aren't really my strong suit though, so I can't exactly criticize women for neglecting them:P.

wait, wait, does that really actually surprise you?

wait, wait, does that really actually surprise you?

Nintendevil

Yeah I kinda thought this was common knowledge. Maybe it's just because I was exposed to it, I was a Computer Science major and my cIasses were always at least 75% male.

I wouldn't say it's a problem that needs to be fixed, technology is just a subject that many women don't find too appealing. It's kindof the opposite version of nursing.

[QUOTE="Nintendevil"]

wait, wait, does that really actually surprise you?

JML897

Yeah I kinda thought this was common knowledge. Maybe it's just because I was exposed to it, I was a Computer Science major and my cIasses were always at least 75% male.

I wouldn't say it's a problem that needs to be fixed, technology is just a subject that many women don't find too appealing. It's kindof the opposite version of nursing.

Source.

I had no idea that Computer Science degrees were so male-dominated, that's why this article grabbed my attention.

To Jocelyn Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook, the math is stark.

Less than 20% of the bachelor's degrees in computer science go to women, according to federal statistics. By comparison, nearly 60% of all bachelor's degrees are awarded to graduating females.

She blames the lack of role models both in popular culture and in day-to-day life as a key reason for the disparity.

"The reason there aren't more women computer scientists is because there aren't more women computer scientists," she said.

Thoughts? Would it not be an improvement to have more women within the field?

Seems to me a business would want to hire more female talent, especially if they are trying to make their products and services appeal to women.

topsemag55

lol jk

this has been quite common for 30+ years

currently getting my CS degree and yeah i safely there are very few women there. It makes sense though. You really have to have a strong geek/nerd side to be into the stuff. That's just naturally and culturally / socially weird it seems.

currently getting my CS degree and yeah i safely there are very few women there. It makes sense though. You really have to have a strong geek/nerd side to be into the stuff. That's just naturally and culturally / socially weird it seems.

Gen007

I've heard this from other sources before so I'm not surprised.

I am a great believer in the best person for a job should be given the job. However this sometime isn't the case, maybe due to prejudice or the fear of being accused of discrimination. To make a long story short, should there be more female computer technicions: yes if they are good enough why not. However too think that because they are female means that they will be able to make products more appealing to women is just being daft and blind (no insult is aimed at you in anyway). Tazzman1000

[QUOTE="Serraph105"][QUOTE="Tazzman1000"]I am a great believer in the best person for a job should be given the job. However this sometime isn't the case, maybe due to prejudice or the fear of being accused of discrimination. To make a long story short, should there be more female computer technicions: yes if they are good enough why not. However too think that because they are female means that they will be able to make products more appealing to women is just being daft and blind (no insult is aimed at you in anyway). thegerg

Yes and yes more women is definitely an advantage. However I think too many people these days are looking at the industry and saying that because there's no women there the industry has something against them, especially with this new love for the term 'brogrammers'. There's a little of a boy's club feel to computer science however it's no where near as bad as the reputation and it's not intentional or malevolent in any way.

IMO women are turned off from tech well before getting anywhere near the industry. I constantly see posts from female programmers that their teachers always suggested that because they were girls they weren't expected to be as good at math, physics or IT; that when they were growing up they were always praised for being 'pretty' or 'beautiful' but not for being clever and their friends never shared their interest in tech and they were ostracised for this.

When a women does join a tech company they're often the only one there and have no female peers. Some feel that they can't ask fro help because they have to prove that women can work in technology. I've also heard that the meetings don't suit them as they're often confrontational, not in an aggressive manner, but in a way that people are constantly shooting down each others ideas and women prefer more collaborative approaches than competitive ones.

This isn't to say there aren't jerks in the industry, I have heard of people being denied jobs simply because they were women and misogynist comments being thrown around the office. I'm sure some people here have heard of Boston API Jam which advertised women serving beer as 'perks'. However this is not a trait of the tech industry as a whole and there is definitely no big brogrammer movement.

currently getting my CS degree and yeah i safely there are very few women there. It makes sense though. You really have to have a strong geek/nerd side to be into the stuff. That's just naturally and culturally / socially weird it seems.

Gen007

Who cares? This just sounds like people trying to bring it up for the sake of bringing it up, it's not like it's a big deal, if women don't want to do that job how does that effect anything at all? bobbetybob

Source.

I had no idea that Computer Science degrees were so male-dominated, that's why this article grabbed my attention.

To Jocelyn Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook, the math is stark.

Less than 20% of the bachelor's degrees in computer science go to women, according to federal statistics. By comparison, nearly 60% of all bachelor's degrees are awarded to graduating females.

She blames the lack of role models both in popular culture and in day-to-day life as a key reason for the disparity.

"The reason there aren't more women computer scientists is because there aren't more women computer scientists," she said.

Thoughts? Would it not be an improvement to have more women within the field?

Seems to me a business would want to hire more female talent, especially if they are trying to make their products and services appeal to women.

topsemag55

As long as the gap is not a result of decreased opportunities, I dont have as much of a problem with it. If women willingly choose not to go into computer science majors because they find them unattractive, then so be it.

Hasn't the vast majority of the science and engineering workforce always been male? I got my BS in Electrical Engineering a year ago, and I think there were about 4 girls whom I constantly saw in my upper division EE courses. It'd be great if more females went the science and engineering route; this generation's constant exposure to technology at early ages may spark that.

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]Who cares? This just sounds like people trying to bring it up for the sake of bringing it up, it's not like it's a big deal, if women don't want to do that job how does that effect anything at all? GazaAli

I'm sure it will fill itself over time.

Inb4 gubmint should regulate this so that women are represented equally.

Who cares? This just sounds like people trying to bring it up for the sake of bringing it up, it's not like it's a big deal, if women don't want to do that job how does that effect anything at all? bobbetybob

Also Women make up 51% of the world's population so it's pretty stupid to not have any of them on the team, you're missing out on a telent pool and you could pottentially be missing out on them as a market. Finally diversity is a good thing in any team, it means you don't have as much group think and have more innovative ideas as you're pulling from a much broader range of ideas for inspiration.

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]Who cares? This just sounds like people trying to bring it up for the sake of bringing it up, it's not like it's a big deal, if women don't want to do that job how does that effect anything at all? GazaAli

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]Who cares? This just sounds like people trying to bring it up for the sake of bringing it up, it's not like it's a big deal, if women don't want to do that job how does that effect anything at all? GazaAli

So cupcakes are good but pizza's lame? JML897

[QUOTE="Overlord93"]Obviously, it's not because of a lack of role models, it's because women in general have much less concept or interest in computers beyond social networking. I mean seriously, most girls I've known struggle enough with facebook, they're hardly going into computer sciences.markop2003