Women in tech jobs drops dramatically

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is an article about women in computer jobs (in America)....saying that the numbers have dropped by 50%. The article is about a TV show on women in computer jobs.

http://us.cnn.com/2015/07/31/tech/women-computer-science-halt-catch-fire-feat/index.html

****************************************************************************

Quick, name a couple of famous female coders in the vein of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Nobody comes to mind, eh?

One might assume that in the early 1980s, women in computer science were a rarity, but that's not true.

"In the '80s, there were more women getting degrees in computer technology than there are now, which is mind-blowing," Kerry Bishe (Donna) said on the set of the show....

Indeed, a National Science Foundation study from 2014 shows a precipitous drop in women choosing to study computer science over the past 30 years. Nearly 40% of computer science majors in 1984 were female. Now, it's 18%.

"Even with the number of computer science jobs increasing, the number of women pursuing careers in computer science is falling," said Jennifer Koebele, a writer who specializes in research on higher education and technology.

"I found that according to Stanford University studies, women's quit rate in technology exceeds that of other science and engineering fields -- with a full 56% leaving their organizations at midlevel points in their careers," Koebele said.

****************************************************************************

Any views?

Sriram

[Leonard James]

The only reason I can think of is that of starting a family. Women are handicapped in this respect, many finding it impossible to work and care for their children personally at the same time.

[Rhiannon]

But that doesn't explain why there is such a drop in those studying tech for a degree. Believe me, when you are 18 you don't think ahead to being 30 and not being able to juggle a baby and keeping up with advances in your field and so then drop your passion accordingly. It has to be something to do with the environment in which females study tech, coupled with it being seen as male geeky and not feminine, even feminine geeky.

[Hope]

Could it be that the IT industry seems to have reached saturation in terms of employment, and people have decided to move on to other fields of study and work?  I can think of several people who studied IT at uni and further education who have never been able to get a job in that area, choosing to move into other fields of work.  I suppose potentially it could be that women saw the saturation point approaching earlier than men and 'jumped ship' earlier than men

[Udayana]

Need more facts before being able to analyse this. Are the stats from the US also reflected in the UK? There has been drives to appoint more women to management, this might affect the male/female ratio of techies?

[King Oberon]

Like sport perhaps it's just something not that many women are into?

A lot of women I work with have no interest in computers or tech or sport for that matter.

Why does it always have to be discrimination ?

[Rhiannon]

I'm not sure the implication is that it is discriminatory as in women are/feel excluded. It's more a case of are women/girls conditioned to think that tech isn't for them? If the numbers had remained steady then yes, you would say it's just not something girls do. But why such a decline in an era when we are supposed to be more open-minded about gender and preferences, not less?

And what's this thing about women not being into sport?

[Sriram]

I'm not sure the implication is that it is discriminatory as in women are/feel excluded. It's more a case of are women/girls conditioned to think that tech isn't for them? If the numbers had remained steady then yes, you would say it's just not something girls do. But why such a decline in an era when we are supposed to be more open-minded about gender and preferences, not less?

And what's this thing about women not being into sport?

Each woman is different from the other and yet there are many qualities that women as a whole share.

Being a woman naturally disposes a person to certain preferences and choices. Its part of their genetic and psychological make up. Nothing wrong with that. Why is it wrong to dislike tech jobs and why should women be conditioned to like tech jobs?

Attempts to create a gender neutral world could backfire and create more problems than it solves.

[Udayana]

...
Attempts to create a gender neutral world could backfire and create more problems than it solves.

hmm .. how exactly?