There has been a considerable decline in the number of women in Computer Science or Information and Communications Technology since my career began. The same decline has not been seen in other STEM fields. There are several ideas as to why though a lot of uncertainty remains. The focus recently seems to be how do we get women back into the field? A lot of efforts are being made to introduce computer science in grade schools and to engage girls in high school. I had an interesting discussion today with a young woman who has a PhD in Physics who is working as a software developer. For some time she has been an advocate and volunteer in these efforts to "recruit" girls. She expressed some worry that she is setting these girls up to hit a wall when they do get into the field as the culture and ideals are decidedly male-techie oriented. It saddens me that this culture is still discouraging to young women in the field. I will leave you with a couple of articles she sent me and hopefully I will reflect on this further in my next post.
Refresher: STEM is an acronym referring to the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
p.s. With thanks to Marianne !
