The biggest deterrent for women in tech(tech.fortune.cnn.com)
tech.fortune.cnn.com
The biggest deterrent for women in tech
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/30/the-biggest-deterrent-for-women-in-tech/
6 comments
Well, there's no doubt that fathers would react negatively to a son playing with dolls, immersing themselves in fashion, or healthcare.
Is there such a pressure on girls? Do the mothers feel unnerved if their daughters start fiddling with lego?
Is there such a pressure on girls? Do the mothers feel unnerved if their daughters start fiddling with lego?
The issue is even having those LEGOs to begin with, rather than worthless new [pink, sparkly] fashions for her Barbie. Personally, I was obsessed with American Girls because of how they represented historical times and had stories about their experiences living back then, even though my parents couldn't afford the dolls themselves. I also enjoyed having a dollhouse because it allowed me to problem-solve spatial situations while keeping design/foot traffic in mind. Having one that was modular/extendable would have been amazing, too. Little stuff like that.
What do you think are the top deterrents for women NOT going into technology-related careers today? (More than one response allowed)
1. Choosing a career based on a desire for work/life and family balance that doesn't involve 60 hour weeks or waking up at 2:00 AM to answer a pager alert.
2. Choosing a career based on a desire for self-actualization and personal fulfillment instead of what best pays the bills.
3. Dropping out of difficult technical education courses in college in favor of less demanding classes, because there is not enough pressure to think about providing for oneself.
What do you think it will take for women to be successful in the technology field? (More than one response allowed)
Bleak reality. Technology jobs are useful and pay well. The more women are forced to care for themselves instead of relying on a husband, their parents, or the government, the more likely they will choose technology careers.
Of course, as more women that enter the technology market, salaries will drop (for everyone).
How optimistic are you about the future of women in technology?
Not optimistic at all. I don't think people are looking at the right problems.
1. Choosing a career based on a desire for work/life and family balance that doesn't involve 60 hour weeks or waking up at 2:00 AM to answer a pager alert.
2. Choosing a career based on a desire for self-actualization and personal fulfillment instead of what best pays the bills.
3. Dropping out of difficult technical education courses in college in favor of less demanding classes, because there is not enough pressure to think about providing for oneself.
What do you think it will take for women to be successful in the technology field? (More than one response allowed)
Bleak reality. Technology jobs are useful and pay well. The more women are forced to care for themselves instead of relying on a husband, their parents, or the government, the more likely they will choose technology careers.
Of course, as more women that enter the technology market, salaries will drop (for everyone).
How optimistic are you about the future of women in technology?
Not optimistic at all. I don't think people are looking at the right problems.
I choose a career in tech (graduated from Mechatronics Engineering at Waterloo, worked at Microsoft for 2 years and just got accepted into YC S13). I'm personally offended by your generalization of what you feel is deterring women to enter tech.
1. I never had a problem working hard, 60+ hours, nor did any of my female friends growing up. 2. A tech career can be great at self-actualization. You build cool shit, and can make new things that can change peoples lives. It's awesome. 3. Seriously...you actually believe that smart women are thinking about lowering their life goals in anticipation of marrying up?
Women absolutely care for themselves. I'm not saying there aren't still women who don't, but this view that a female will be taken care of was never something that entered into my head, nor anyone else I know.
The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was not seeming "cool" while I signed up for a computer engineering class in highschool. Peer pressure was a hard obstacle to overcome back then, but I am so glad I did.
1. I never had a problem working hard, 60+ hours, nor did any of my female friends growing up. 2. A tech career can be great at self-actualization. You build cool shit, and can make new things that can change peoples lives. It's awesome. 3. Seriously...you actually believe that smart women are thinking about lowering their life goals in anticipation of marrying up?
Women absolutely care for themselves. I'm not saying there aren't still women who don't, but this view that a female will be taken care of was never something that entered into my head, nor anyone else I know.
The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was not seeming "cool" while I signed up for a computer engineering class in highschool. Peer pressure was a hard obstacle to overcome back then, but I am so glad I did.
I'm personally offended by your generalization of what you feel is deterring women to enter tech.
Of course you are offended. That's why reasonable, more detailed examination of generalizations such as mine rarely happens and you certainly don't hear about it. It makes people awkwardly uncomfortable and you can't have that on CNEntertinment, unless it's delivered by an over-the-top caricature you don't have to take seriously. Instead you have equally absurd generalizations based on popular opinion that make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.
1. I never had a problem working hard, 60+ hours, nor did any of my female friends growing up.
Nor do any of the women I know. In fact most of them work as hard as I do or harder. I am not surprised at all to find smart, hard-working women in technology. STEM degree stats suggest women make up nearly 20% even in the most male-heavy fields like Computer Science and Physics. The relevant demographic is not necessarily you or every woman you know, but the hypothetical women that would make up that 10-30% gap in the gender balance.
Or, from the perspective of companies wanting to hire more capable engineers at cheaper salaries, the point is not to address the imbalanced gender ratio, the point is to maximize the pool of talent by whatever means available.
2. A tech career can be great at self-actualization. You build cool shit, and can make new things that can change peoples lives. It's awesome.
Of course it can be. But what percentage of people going into STEM fields admit that it was their first choice and one made without much regard for earning potential? It certainly was not my first choice. I originally wanted to be a professor of music theory. I looked at the employment prospects and job markets and opted to pursue technology instead. In fact many of the people I've worked with in technology started out with different ambitions and wound up here because they were smart, resourceful, and needed money.
3. Seriously...you actually believe that smart women are thinking about lowering their life goals in anticipation of marrying up?
I believe that all women will marry up if they can and that dedicating time and attention to raise a family does not represent lowering of life goals. I also think that regardless of what one may want or what they may decide with their brain, most people will accomplish less if they do not face pressure.
Women absolutely care for themselves. I'm not saying there aren't still women who don't, but this view that a female will be taken care of was never something that entered into my head, nor anyone else I know.
And you are working in a technology field.
Of course women take care of themselves. The question is how much pressure are they under to do so relative to the pressure faced by a man with similar gifts and opportunities.
Of course you are offended. That's why reasonable, more detailed examination of generalizations such as mine rarely happens and you certainly don't hear about it. It makes people awkwardly uncomfortable and you can't have that on CNEntertinment, unless it's delivered by an over-the-top caricature you don't have to take seriously. Instead you have equally absurd generalizations based on popular opinion that make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.
1. I never had a problem working hard, 60+ hours, nor did any of my female friends growing up.
Nor do any of the women I know. In fact most of them work as hard as I do or harder. I am not surprised at all to find smart, hard-working women in technology. STEM degree stats suggest women make up nearly 20% even in the most male-heavy fields like Computer Science and Physics. The relevant demographic is not necessarily you or every woman you know, but the hypothetical women that would make up that 10-30% gap in the gender balance.
Or, from the perspective of companies wanting to hire more capable engineers at cheaper salaries, the point is not to address the imbalanced gender ratio, the point is to maximize the pool of talent by whatever means available.
2. A tech career can be great at self-actualization. You build cool shit, and can make new things that can change peoples lives. It's awesome.
Of course it can be. But what percentage of people going into STEM fields admit that it was their first choice and one made without much regard for earning potential? It certainly was not my first choice. I originally wanted to be a professor of music theory. I looked at the employment prospects and job markets and opted to pursue technology instead. In fact many of the people I've worked with in technology started out with different ambitions and wound up here because they were smart, resourceful, and needed money.
3. Seriously...you actually believe that smart women are thinking about lowering their life goals in anticipation of marrying up?
I believe that all women will marry up if they can and that dedicating time and attention to raise a family does not represent lowering of life goals. I also think that regardless of what one may want or what they may decide with their brain, most people will accomplish less if they do not face pressure.
Women absolutely care for themselves. I'm not saying there aren't still women who don't, but this view that a female will be taken care of was never something that entered into my head, nor anyone else I know.
And you are working in a technology field.
Of course women take care of themselves. The question is how much pressure are they under to do so relative to the pressure faced by a man with similar gifts and opportunities.
>What do you think it will take for women to be successful in the technology field?
>Equal pay for men and women with same skill sets: Women: 65.5%, Men: 46.8%
Clearly two different perceptions.
Off the top of my head, I'd expect any gender wage gap in tech to be small relative to other fields.
A quick search seems to bear that out [1][2][3].
1: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031357/gender-gap-in-tech-sa...
2: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.pdf
3: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2013/04/09...
>Equal pay for men and women with same skill sets: Women: 65.5%, Men: 46.8%
Clearly two different perceptions.
Off the top of my head, I'd expect any gender wage gap in tech to be small relative to other fields.
A quick search seems to bear that out [1][2][3].
1: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031357/gender-gap-in-tech-sa...
2: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.pdf
3: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2013/04/09...
Just because an opinion is popular, that doesn't necessarily make it a fact.
Remember the dawn of computing? There were no women!
And no men. How did men do it without role models?
I don't know. How did they discover America without role models? Or climb Everest? How do they do anything when everyone says it can't be done?
Its a mystery. Especially if you pay no attention to biology.
And no men. How did men do it without role models?
I don't know. How did they discover America without role models? Or climb Everest? How do they do anything when everyone says it can't be done?
Its a mystery. Especially if you pay no attention to biology.
But at the dawn of computing it was all women. It was considered womens' work, akin to secretarial duties.
From what I've read, none of them were programming, the job was to transcribe programs for the computers. That's what they were advertising as a secretarial duty. That doesn't suggest attitudes have suddenly done this strange 180 in the past few decades. The job was just replaced by compilers.
You may want to revisit your history then - a woman wrote what is widely considered, by both men and women, to be the first computer program, an extremely complicated algorithm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace). During WWII, women were "recruited to do ballistics calculations and program computers. Around 1943-1945, these women "computers" used a Differential Analyzer in the basement of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering to speed up their calculations." In 1949, Grace Hopper was the first programmer of the Harvard Mark I, known as the "Mother of COBOL", and developed the first ever compiler for an electronic computer, known as A-0. In the late 1950s, orbital calculations for the United States' Explorer 1 satellite were solved by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's all-female "computers", many of whom were recruited out of high school.
While attitudes may not have done a 180, your inference that early women computer scientists were "not programming" and only transcribing is factually incorrect.
While attitudes may not have done a 180, your inference that early women computer scientists were "not programming" and only transcribing is factually incorrect.
I stopped reading here:
> "It provides access to jobs purely based on merit and results and really, in some ways, neutralizes some of the gender discrimination that exists around the world."
The fact is that Elance does not neutralize anything, except their reputation by stating such BS. If I would be sexist, I could simply reject women on Elance the same way I could do in person.
> "It provides access to jobs purely based on merit and results and really, in some ways, neutralizes some of the gender discrimination that exists around the world."
The fact is that Elance does not neutralize anything, except their reputation by stating such BS. If I would be sexist, I could simply reject women on Elance the same way I could do in person.
> Geek technology culture not appealing:
> Women: 20.6% Men: 34.3%
> Dispel stereotypes that boys are better than girls in math and science:
> Women: 48.9% Men: 31.0%
Working in technology is appealing to girls, but growing up being told that's not what girls do is what hurts.