In the tech industry, it's a well known fact that women are in short supply. In fact, when you look at the largest tech companies in the world, the majority of them are all male, or only have one or two females on their board. Why is this? Is the problem that the tech world discriminates against women or are women just not able to compete?
It's a question that many people have been asking lately. The debate was given some new fuel recently when The Daily Beast released their Digital Power Index that ranked the top 100 most influential people in tech. The problem with the list wasn't as simple as a disagreement about each person's rankings. Instead, the issue was that out to the top 100 people, only 7 were women. To make matters worse, out of the 54 people in charge of ranking the contenders, only 13 were women.
In response to the list, Rachel Sklar wrote an article in which she claimed that the Digital Power Index disproportionally represented men. She said that because the overwhelming majority of the people recognized were white men, the questions has to be asked, are there just no women in the field or are men simply better at it? She characterized the award list as "a list of white men, compiled by white men in an industry that favors white men." Sklar went on to say that not only are women underrepresented, the way they are viewed by others is different as well. As an example, she noted that the two most influential women in tech this year are Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer, from Facebook and Google (now Yahoo) respectively, are being called "evangelists" as opposed to being seen as "innovators" or "visionaries."
It's worth noting that the problem isn't just that there aren't enough women in tech. Although that's true, it isn't as true as you'd think. There are plenty of women involved in the digital fields. However in Science, Technology and Math, there is a 25% decline in the number of women entering the field. To help combat this, a new organization called "Girls Who Code" has been formed to help encourage young girls to enter these fields. The group, founded by Reshma Saujani, claims that although 57% of college graduates are women, only 14% of them get degrees in computer science or engineering and only 14% of engineers are women.
In an attempt to help change those numbers, Girls Who Code are working to educate and inspire girls who are 13-17 to pursue degrees in technology. In order to accomplish that, they are launching a summer program in New York City that will teach girls to code. With support from many tech leaders, like Google, Foursquare and Twitter, they are creating a program that will give girls the skills and encouragement they need to become future technology leaders.
Still, there are many who say that the problem is with women. They claim that girls just aren't interested in technology and that teaching them coding skills isn't going to change things in the long run. However, women use the Internet 17% more than men and women create more than two-thirds of the content on social media sites and still, companies aren't really targeting them at all.
Saujani hopes that her program will help fuel interest in technology and help companies in the future innovate and reach new markets. I think that it is in the best interests of the tech world as a whole to get behind this movement because in order to be truly innovative, you have to be ahead of the curve. When the people who are making the products aren't the people who are using the products, it leaves huge holes and openings for competitors.
For young girls, there is still an intense pressure to not be interested in math or science. In addition, there aren't many role models for girls who are good at math and who want to pursue careers as digital engineers. Hopefully, groups like "Girls Who Code" can help to change things and encourage innovation that doesn't exclude half of the population.
What do you think? Do you think that programs like this will work? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Image Source: Girls Who Code
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