Tech Needs More Women
There, I said it. The tech industry needs more women to get in and make things right again. It’s way too male dominated and it doesn’t have to be.
Over half of the professionals in the United States are women. They account for nearly 50% more college degrees than men. With this kind of knowledge, how is it right that less than 20% of the working computer hardware engineers are men? Answer: it isn’t.
This graphic by our friends at SocialCast lays the foundation for why the tech world needs more women. Pay attention – we should expect to see this male-dominated industry fall to the females soon enough.
“With this kind of knowledge, how is it right that less than 20% of the working computer hardware engineers are men? Answer: it isn’t.”
huh?
As a programmer, I’m always trying to teach programming to women, but they don’t have the patience for it. Why this is, I really don’t know. I’m really good at teaching programming. Maybe there’s something I’m missing that I could be doing to make it more appealing to them. What is interesting to note about the women depicted at the end of this article is that they founded technology companies, but in many cases weren’t involved in the development of that technology directly. Women seem to prefer business over technical work from what I can tell, perhaps they have stronger social skills than men that benefits them more in business. In any case, there aren’t less women in tech for lack of a good honest attempt on my part. It might also be worth noting that men are getting less into tech these days as well themselves. My cousins, nephews and nieces want to be car mechanics, mathematicians, vets, doctors, etc. And, they all despise computers and see them as nothing but a chore. I expected them to pick them up quickly, but they haven’t. And, when I offer any assistance, they turn it away. They’re afraid I might break the computer, and seem to be afraid of technology beyond simply cell phones and game consoles, versus embracing it. This particular outlook doesn’t seem to be gender biased.
“There, you said it”. What you didn’t say is how to attract more women into the technology field, thus making your statement worthless. Nice infographic, but doesn’t have anything to do with that statement.
Wow tjhat looks like it might just actually work. Wow.
The question is, how many schools have tech/IT/programming classes that would appeal to young girls in order to gain their interest an a young age?
The classes that are available are usually rather late in your options, often at college level, and give the impression of working in the industry as being very isolated, working away on your own for hours at a time (also reflected in the media image), rather than the possibility of co-operative group work.
As a software engineer I believe programming could be made more fun for young women if it was more common and if teaching strategies were adapted to the more social way in which women can work collaboratively. Coding is modular, therefore it is actually quite perfect for women.