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Gender Equality Meets Technology

Women in technology today

Women and todays technical fields

In the United States, there is a gender gap where women are underrepresented in the technology industry. Throughout the years, various laws have been created to help minimize the gender gap between men and women. As allegations of the gender disparity arises, it has pushed for equality by companies promising for improvements and change. Although the progress of decreasing the gender gap between men and women in the technology industry has been slow, in some industries it has gotten worse. According to Laura Colby, currently women are only holding about 26 percent of the computer and mathematical jobs, which is much lower in comparison to the levels in 1960.

The Current Situation

Today, women are reaching out for change and increasingly speaking out about their experience of the hostile culture. In many cases at the workplace, women are left out by their men peers and their managers do not believe that they are capable of being leaders. Once these complaints and allegations are brought to attention, more companies are modifying their policies for the better. Colby discussed that in the high-tech city Silicon Valley, many of the biggest companies established ways to improve their hiring, pay, and family-leave policies. Other major companies such as Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc. have hired more women. In 2016, at Apple women held 23 percent of the technical jobs, which has increased 20 percent in 2 years.

The Background

Electronic computers were invented between the 1930s and 1940s. Olivia Waxman states that the first computer coders and programmers were women. During the early beginnings of computers, there were many female programmers in the field. As computing becomes more crucial, women had a more prominent role due to their incredible skills where it wasn’t male dominated allowing more opportunities for women. However, as the field develops and time passes the problem with gender disparity in the technology industry continues to expand. This gender gap not only exist in the United States, however it occurs in many European and Asian companies around the world. It is seen in the executive and board levels and it influences the salaries as well as positioning. In comparison to men, women who are tech entrepreneurs significantly less venture capital than startups led by men. Studies have shown that high-school girls outperform boys in math and science, however boys are more likely to go towards a college major in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects. Due to the gender disparity, women tend to leave the field because of discrimination and mistreatment. While examining the culture at technical workplaces, women leave high-tech jobs twice the rate of men.

The Argument

One theory for the gender disparity is that tech startups are recruited from their social circles, who like-minded male employees. While they are hiring the people from their circle, they are too focused on expanding the business that they forget to factor in the employment policies. As the companies incorporate a human-resources department, the “bro culture” is hard to dismiss primarily if the company is successful and thriving. Studies have shown that companies who perform better financially are the ones that are more diverse and innovative. As companies are improving, Intel Corporation, are investing $300 million in suppliers, startups and anti-harassment awareness programs hoping that, by 2020, they will be the first tech company with women and minorities in the same proportions as the U.S. workforce. Girls Who Code, is a national non-profit program dedicated to close the gender gap. They offer free summer and after school programs that teaches middle school and high school females to learn and write computer code. The youth organization, Girl Scouts of America is expanding the merit badges where girls can earn and build valuable technology and computer skills.

The Threat of Stereotype

Stereotype threat is the result of circumstances where a negative stereotype is related to assessing performance. For example, a female student takes a math test and experiences an extra cognitive and emotional burden of concern that relates to the stereotype that women are not good at math. An occurence of this stereotype, such as taking the test in a room populated by mostly men, can affect her test performance. But if the burden were to be removed her performance would improve. Therefore, stereotype threat is an explanation why women remain understated in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

In the article Why So Few, people claim they do not believe the stereotype that women are not as good as men in math and science. Conversely, people who disapprove of gender stereotypes can hold these beliefs at an unaware level. These beliefs may be more influential than clearly held beliefs as people may not even be aware they have them. Supposedly gender prejudice is declining, but the research demonstrates that the beliefs that underlie negative stereotypes endure, and they continue to influence norms about people’s behavior.

What Can We Do?

Changing The Way We Talk About Engineering

The discussion around engineering is often one that interprets engineering as a numbers and science game, and not talking about what engineers actually set out to do and how they work. Much of what an engineer does is often going to include communication, reading, writing, research, and people skills that will be essential in accomplishing their goals. We should also be talking about engineers as people who are creating, and being creative. They create prosthetics, materials, robots, and are involved in the design in just about every product and tool imaginable. Instead of highlighting the rigorous math and science courses, which more than anything require hard work and dedication rather than talent, we should be focusing on what people will be doing with that math and science to inspire the passion necessary to follow the path of science and tech.

Changing The Way We Teach Engineering

Many people who enter into the engineering fields will be retained into the program if they start out with a research class that helps inspire them, and encourage them to understand what engineering is all about. Exposing people to real world examples and applications and making people actually see the power and effect of what they would be doing in these fields, is going to be the best way to encourage anyone to stick with the program’s demanding course work.

“Retention efforts supported by our Women in Engineering Program include women’s groups in specific engineering departments and research projects for second-year students, as well as the first-years. More than 95 percent of incoming female mechanical engineering students in the fall of 2014 continued to study mechanical engineering in the fall of 2015”-Carolyn Conner Seepersad, from The Conversation.

Changing The Way We Think About Women

Much of the challenges that women face in day to day life is what is leads us to the declining rate of women in tech from 1 in 4 to 1 in 10. The assumption that women need to have everything explained to the and the attitude that men know more than women is implicitly present, and expressed through the phenomenon of mansplaining.
Men are more likely to assume women are going to fail, with a recent study showing that when men as women about questions as they related to investment, they where more likely to ask about what could go wrong whereas men were more likely to be asked on what would be right. However it goes deeper than that. High paying jobs, and intellectual jobs double as positions of power. These positions are cases where people will be asked to explain learn, manage, and control because they are the people that are expected to know how to do these things. There is an almost inherent aspect of leadership implicit in many tech positions. It could be that men could be using this is a way of maintaining power.

Lived Experiences

We spoke to some women in the computer science department and they wanted to remain anonymous, they both had some radically different things to say about their experiences participating in the industry. One felt othered and singled out when we asked her about her experiences in the tech field as woman, and while she does acknowledge that there are issues that women face entering the tech field, she herself has had a positive experience because of her ability to relate to the stereotypical men who are attracted to the tech field. She was an active member of the tech club at one of the colleges she attended and even the tech club president. She also has managed to get internships to programming positions, so she feels like the struggles don't apply to her. She said that despite the barrier she still felt welcomed into the community.

However at the same time when we asked another woman who attended the same school and was in the same tech club as the person that was previously interviewed, she had a much different thing to say. She said that often she felt like she saw herself and other women get treated like they did not know when they were talking about, she also spoke about the clear disparity between the numbers of men and women at her I.T. job. Additionally, she expressed that this was an inherent problem of the way capitalism treats and uses women. Essentially in order to keep women in their place, patriarchy ensures that no matter the importance and value of the job they get, they will always be paid less for their work. Saying that wealth equates a position of power that results in the decisions to keep jobs that women tend to be more likely to be less funded and underpaid.

Pioneers
In Computer Science

Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Heafield Hamilton is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. Hamilton was one of the first female computer software programmers, coining the term software engineer. Instead of pursuing graduate work, she took a position at Massachusetts Institutional of Technology (MIT), developing a weather prediction software. At MIT she worked as a Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Lab she developed an on-board flight software for the Apollo space program, which was used in Apollo 11. In 1986, Hamilton founded and became the CEO of Hamilton Technologies Inc., (HTI).

Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper was known for being the first computer programmer, a computer pioneer, and a military leader. She joined the US Naval Reserves during World War II and became a rear admiral. Following the war, she continued her work in computing developing the first computer language compiler, known as the COBOL language. Hopper was the eldest serving officer in the United States Armed forces, she retired at the age of 79. She passed away at the age of 85 in 1992, however her legacy continues. Two years after her passing, the Grace Hopper Celebration event is well known as the world’s largest gathering of women in the tech industry. The technical conference brings women together of all ages, ethnicity, and all backgrounds to encourage them to be involved in the computing and technical industry. In 2016, Barack Obama honored Hopper with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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Conclusion

​​ We hope this information has shed light for the current plight of women in tech fields. It is important not just that we know this information but also that we stay mindful of the problem, and if possible take any action that we can to encourage the inclusion of women in these fields. The benefits for doing so are well documented, and we would be missing out on the many potential contributions of women who could have contributed to these fields if social conditions had been more positive and encouraging. For the sake of the future of the world, we must take action!

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