Winning More Women

The issue du jour in the tech world seems to be diversity, specifically as applied to women in the industry. With all the press coverage on Julie Ann Horvath, and the National Center for Women in Technology's recent infographic detailing the low female involvement in the tech sector (and in schools!), major news publications are even jumping on board and reporting on a lack of ladies across the technological field.

It's 2014 and while it is perhaps surprising the 57% of the professional workforce here in the good ol' USA is comprised of women (given that an even 50.8% of our population is female), according to demographic information, some sectors don't reflect the population distribution as well as the workforce on the whole.

For example, women make up more than 70% of HR workers, tax examiners, collectors and revenue agents, event planners, fundraisers, social workers, legal assistants, and preschool and kindergarten teachers(which is at a whopping 97%). Yet make up 4.6% of natural resources, construction, and maintenence workers, 26.8% of cheif executives, and 26.1% of workers in computer and mathematical occupations. For some reason, there is a shortage of x chromosomes in particular fields, and tech is one of them.

Take a look at the following graph:

While the chart itself doesn't specify, the website I grabbed it from (department of labor, linked to on the image) specifies that they're talking about computer engineers. You can see that in the past 20 years, the number of female engineers hasn't gone up nearly as much as the number of engineers has.

Why?

Believe it or not, the reason there is such a leaning demographic in the tech world is hotly debated. Some cite "culture fit", which at its surface describes a job candidate, or current hire who just doesn't mesh well with the other employees, but Nitasha Tiku writing for Gawker calls is "selection bias that replaced the good ole boys club with a younger model". It seems easy to unconsiously be practicing selection bias when citing "culture fit". You want to find a good fit for your team; you want to hire people who aren't going to be a distraction to your current workforce. You want your team to be happy. If hiring one person risks making the rest of the team happy, or if you know it would be difficult for that single person to fit in, why would you risk the discord?

Women cite their own version of culture fit, too. One of the statistics being thrown around is that more than half of women between the ages of 35 and 40 are leaving the technology sector all together- just getting up and quitting, mid-career. When women have spoken up as to why, they cite "a sexist, alpha-male culture that can make women and other people who don’t fit the mold feel unwelcome, demeaned or even endangered". Some of the comments on the gawker post referenced above, by women who have experienced it first-hand, go a long way to giving some insight as to why it is women who do get into tech don't seem to want to stay there.

Still others cite the "nerd" stereotype as something that contributes to girls being uninterested in tech from a young age. Take another look at the NCWIT flyer I linked to earlier: three decades ago, in the 80's, 37% of computer science degrees were earned by women. Not only is that number down to 18% today, but the number of college freshman women interested in computer science as a major dropped a whopping 79% from 2000 - 2011. The nerd stereotype might have a little to do with that, but one of the other reasons cited for those low numbers is a lack of exposure. Again, on that fact sheet, the number of high school aged women who are take computer science ap tests, or who are finalists in computer science competitions is staggeringly low (17-19%) compared to those involved in mathematics (46% and 29%) and science (56% and 54%) in general.

How do we fix it?

The first obvious answer is to increase exposure at a young age. Technology is facing a workforce shortage already. Projectiosn say that by 2020, only 30% of the jobs created will be able to be filled by the U.S. workforce. If we increase exposureacross the board, young people (and older people, as is evidenced by the context of this blog post) are more likely to be more interested in working in tech. Hopefully that include women. CSEW's "Hour of Code" campaign is trying to do just that. Here's Will.I.Am telling the world that coders are the new rock stars:

The second, perhaps also obvious, answer, is if company's were to work internally to change their cultures to be more inclusive, and to support diversity. There's already a lot of research showing that a diverse workforce can give great competetive advantages to companies. So why aren't more tech companies embracing these ideas and hiring, not just one woman where they can, but maybe, like 5, or even 10. With more minorities at the table, not only is your company more diverse, it's a lot easier to be confident being different if you're not the only one. Of course, there's a difference between diversity and inclusion. In a truly diverse environment, people of all striped and values are not only allowed but expected to contribute to the company's decision-making process, are comfortable speaking, and are actually heard and respected.

Finally, on an individual level, I think if we all try to stay aware of unconscious bias, we might be able to more consciously avoid it. Compassion plays a very important role in the individual's responsibility here. Women can try to be compassionate with the well meaning men around them who probably don't intend to be offensive or dismissive. We can be brave, and spark honest, kind, constructive dialogues wherin we give feedback to people: let them know what bothers us and why, and have patience with them if they don't get it right away. Many men involved in these situations, for their part, can try to be open-minded when confronting perspectives that are different from what they're used to. Listen to feedback that's given, and consider it fairly. You don't have to internalize it, or take measures toward that end, but give it respectful consideration.

Extra Credit

Is it obvious that women in the workplace, and modern feminism are topics I'm passionate about? Despite that fact that everyone is talking about this, I really wanted to put my hand in at writing about it. If this kind of stuff interests you, I highly recommend this book, regardless of your gender currently, which is about feminism, but hits right at the heart in a good way, and is somehow histerically funny. Caitlin Moran helps stop feminism from being a dirty word by asking: Are you a feminist? Why not? Do you believe that men should own their wives as property? Do you believe women should have the right to vote? To own bank accounts? Then surely you are a feminist.

Additionally, if anyone has any thoughts on this material, I encourage you to comment!