Why Aren't There More Women in Tech?

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Why aren't there more women in tech? Hmmm, maybe because guys don't understand women? I've been married over 20 years...still no clue. ;)

We face a chicken and egg problem. If we want more women to become engineers and join the tech industry, we need to offer a culture that is more friendly to them. But building that culture requires having more women in technology. All of this needs to begin at the high school and college level, when students start exploring STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) majors and careers.
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They just need to be interested in geeky stuff like guys are. That's all it took for me. If they aren't interested in learning how things work, they'll never be a geek.

Home-Economics class made me somewhat interested in cooking, but it wasn't where my true interest was. It's probably just 'one of those things' that either

1. Women will never get into, or
2. Something women will get into long after men are no longer interested in working with it
 
"How do we change the culture" simple: treat women with respect, treat them like an equal. Apparently for many guys that's easier said then done. Hmmm, maybe it's a generational thing as these good ol boys will die out and more women would find it more welcoming and interesting.
 
For the same reason guys aren't into quilting and scrap booking as a hobby. Just not as much interest. End of story.
 
One thing that is changing...

1980's even 90's: engineer first from college.

now: if you cant get from engineer to engineer.. you work from the bottom up. start at the helpdesk, gain respect, knowledge and experience and work your way into an engineering position.

there are more women taking tech school courses too. i cant say the same is true yet for engineering at a 4 year school however.

my team is about 50/50 for the helpdesk. I would say the database teams in wisconsin that i have worked with are 50/50 too. however citrix, exchange, security etc it depends on the organization.
 
also healthcare IT support is much more diverse in my experience than non-healthcare.
 
Forgot to add to my first post; Why aren't more men in nursing? Nursing Colleges are so packed right now with women it's impossible even for more women to get into these colleges without a 6-12 month waiting period. Ask any community college ladies, a large majority are getting their gen-eds out of the way so they can go into a nursing program somewhere nearby.
 
It has been talked about forever. It has far less to do with male domination in the industry and far more to do with what women find interesting. In general, women don't like fixing/building. In general. Some do ... that's fantastic. Most don't seem to have a whole lot of interest in fixing things or building anything. The tech industry is pretty much both, as is engineering.

Men are made fun of because when their girlfriends/wives are upset men want to "fix" it so they're not upset. Women don't want it fixed, they just want a shoulder to cry on. That urge to fix things is what makes men interested in the tech/engineering fields. Most women don't have it so, no, you shouldn't try to force such careers down their throats so there's some mythical 50/50 ratio of men and women in every field on the planet.

Oddly, I don't think I've ever seen an article by a man crying about the fact that there aren't more male nurses. Why? We're not obsessed with being held back by our gender so we can see why we're not interested. Women writing blogs/articles about women in _____ field are generally very focused on gender as the reason ... and it has nothing to do with the woman but the men in the field.
 
Ididar said:
Oddly, I don't think I've ever seen an article by a man crying about the fact that there aren't more male nurses. Why? We're not obsessed with being held back by our gender so we can see why we're not interested. Women writing blogs/articles about women in _____ field are generally very focused on gender as the reason ... and it has nothing to do with the woman but the men in the field.
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QFT


Also, put more tech in the kitchen, problem solved.
 
Is it the "culture" of the tech industry that is not friendly to women? Really? I mean, sure there have been some blunders this week that have certainly made headlines, but when I talk to my female peers about career choices they made, the "culture" has never been an issue for choosing one career over another.

I still remember my first programming course nearly a decade ago. There were less than five women in the class - and most of them dropped the course before mid-terms. I don't think it was the gender ratios, treatment, or the "culture" of the classroom that deterred them. There were no sexist jokes or statements made. And from the one or two that I socialized with in class, I don't think it was the "culture" that deterred them from pursuing a tech career. It seemed more like the "content" is what deterred them. Why does the content of the tech industry seem to deter the female gender? Personally, I think that's the appropriate question to ask.
 
She's talking out of her butt. "Change the culture of the Industry"... Um that *really* explains why girls don't pursue science/math in High School.

Sure, the Industry Culture is male centric, that's because the industry is composed of mostly males? Is that surprising? Once more females enter the industry, it'll adjust... but first you have to get enough women to enroll in Computer Science and Engineering majors... That should be the focus.
 
I'll read the article later to comment on specifics but I just think it's a overall lack of interest from girls. In my IT classes at school, the ratio guys to girls was probably like 10 to 1.
 
I believe men and women are equal but different. Generally speaking, men and women are wired differently and so like different things. So, when confront with the OP, my answer is, "It's just how it is. Most women don't like tech."

My wife has a bachelor's in IT. When I met her she was my boss. She stays at home now for home schooling, volunteering, and some teaching outside home. None of it is IT related and she doesn't keep herself up to date as a hobby like I do. She told me herself that her choice of the IT field was mainly for the money opportunity. It worked. She went from managing a fast food restaurant to managing a tech department. We're talking more than double the pay.

It's different for me. I love tech. If I wasn't in IT, I'd be in a science field like physics. When I first when to a university, I went for political science because I wanted to do good in the world. I found out it wasn't worth it because 1) it wasn't fun and 2) politicians can only get what they want done if they do favors for other politicians first. It's a corrupt game.
 
Why aren't women getting into it?

The media's answer is almost always sexism. Which is in large part BS. Yes, historically IT has been... well... socially unpleasant. But it is so for men too. However, as it has matured as a business sector, it has gotten a lot more like any other office job in that regard. If there's anything sexist or culturally biased affecting IT, it's middle school. The kind of social awkwardness that is attracted to IT is something a 14 year old boy can get away with with only a marginal impact that leaves a basically functional person. A 14yo girl learns to cope or is torn to shreds in middle school and tends to get screwed over more in a manner that negatively affects their approach to education. The industry can't do much about that other than lament that our feeder system is stacked against us.

But given what you have to put in, IT has largely incentivized the hell out hiring women. The problem is so do other sectors, and long term the rewards are higher, the prospects for advancement are greater, and the work is easier in those other sectors. Girls who don't get a decent education can't hack it in IT. Girls who are stupid can't hack it in IT. Girls who are smart can see that less effort will be rewarded more elsewhere and don't come to IT.
 
Myers Briggs research ftw. Most techies who love being techies are an intuition thinker. From their research, 30 percent of women have the thinker attribute while the other 70 percent are feelers. And the split between sensing and intuition are split 50/50. This means that only around 15 percent of women are truly tech people. Just from my understanding on the subject.
 
BravO))) said:
Myers Briggs research ftw. Most techies who love being techies are an intuition thinker. From their research, 30 percent of women have the thinker attribute while the other 70 percent are feelers. And the split between sensing and intuition are split 50/50. This means that only around 15 percent of women are truly tech people. Just from my understanding on the subject.
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I can at least attest to this as I am an INTJ Mastermind. Rather difficult to find females that share the middle two letters with myself.
 
But Steve, you *did* go above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty in your quest to understand women with the bra "incident." :p
 
ir0nw0lf said:
But Steve, you *did* go above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty in your quest to understand women with the bra "incident." :p
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And look where it got me...STILL NO WOMEN IN CONTRUCTION!!!! I always wanted 6 chicks in hard hats sitting around on their lunch break whistling at ME when I walk by. Hells yeah!!!
 
Honestly, I think it has to do with work life balance. I'm at a major tech company and I put in a lot of random hours, working through weekends or evenings if projects require it. Sure it doesn't happen all the time, but my time requirements for my job are higher than 40hrs/week of actually being at work and I work probably half my evenings from home for an hour or 2.

This does not make for a dedicated family life in my opinion. I am married and have 2 kids, but if both my wife and I had similar jobs it would not work very well. Her hours are much more predictable and rarely go into evenings.

Additionally, a lot of my coworkers are single or have non working spouses. Quite simply tech is not family friendly and it's hard to attract women with long unpredictable hours. Sure you can probably survive at some tech companies working 40hrs/week but you won't be successful and you definately won't move up the ladder.
 
Who said women aren't in tech? Last time you went to CES or whatnot, did ya ever see a Booth Stud?! Geesh <cringe>. And just yesterday I watched an ACTRESS, not an ACTOR get the primary role of Quantic Dream's "Kara". :p

Women are in the tech field!
 
Dishwasher, Vacuum cleaner, Laundry machine, Gas Oven, Electric Oven, Microwave Oven, Stove, Food Processor, Blender, Mixer.....

....lots of women are into tech :eek:
 
Youn said:
"How do we change the culture" simple: treat women with respect, treat them like an equal. Apparently for many guys that's easier said then done. Hmmm, maybe it's a generational thing as these good ol boys will die out and more women would find it more welcoming and interesting.
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I think you're onto something with the generational thing. And I don't mean older men or even the field being mostly men.

I'm a bit older, but when I was in HS the courses I wanted to take were woodworking, auto mechanics, metalworking - I wanted to know how stuff worked and how to make stuff basically. I was not allowed to take any of those courses - they were for the guys, period. What I was allowed (and encouraged) to take was Home Ec (I was already taking care of a house and doing all the cooking so did I really need to know how to make a tuna melt or sew an apron? - NO), typing and you ready? ... keypunch, yes keypunch. Oh and business math because "higher" math was considered for most of us females too hard and too over our heads.

I would love to be younger and in school, I would be taking as many tech-type courses as were offered. I'd love to know how to build a computer, how to really troubleshoot it (I can do some basics but nothing spectacular and there's no one around to teach me - my roomie thinks I'm a computer hardware whiz *scary*), the ins and outs of IT, any and all that I could take and could comprehend. I will say math is a huge weakness for me, but part of that? see above. Business math, oi. Most useless (besides keypunch) class I ever took.

My roommate's husband works in IT, writes programs for studies (not sure if that'd be up my alley tbh), helps with the studies and yes, does work some crazy hours when there's a study going on. No they don't have (nor will they have) children and my roomie likes having her "alone" time. It can get tense when the study goes on for weeks at a time though. And I don't know how he copes with it all sometimes, the hours are so ridiculous and of course no OT. Living on 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night for like a month and then having to be in work uber early and stay uber late isn't my idea of fun or living. Luckily the studies aren't like one after the other so normally he does have a regular work week.

I look forward to seeing more women in the tech field being "geeks". I happen to love "geeks", think you all are phenomenal!

Of course there are some work environments that wouldn't be welcoming to women, guess that's the "good ole boy" mentality that needs phasing out. And no I won't go make you a damned sammich! .
 
ccmfreak2 said:
I still remember my first programming course nearly a decade ago. There were less than five women in the class - and most of them dropped the course before mid-terms. I don't think it was the gender ratios, treatment, or the "culture" of the classroom that deterred them. There were no sexist jokes or statements made. And from the one or two that I socialized with in class, I don't think it was the "culture" that deterred them from pursuing a tech career. It seemed more like the "content" is what deterred them. Why does the content of the tech industry seem to deter the female gender? Personally, I think that's the appropriate question to ask.
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I had kind of the same experience. My introductory programming class during freshman year had about 1/3 women in it. By the end of the term half of them dropped the class. By senior year there were 0 women in some of my classes. Of course LOTS of men dropped out/switched majors as well. Ask any of the people who dropped girls or guys and they will say it's the coursework, not "culture". The people who stayed on are the ones who had a deep interest in the subject to begin with. So yes there's an issue in general of young girls not being interesting in science and technology, but by college/profession time that's already too late to fix.

OTOH I disagree that there's not enough women in tech. There may be less women in technical roles but there are TONs of women in roles in project management, testing, etc with sharp technical minds. I don't think I've ever been on a male-only team in a job, and have never seen a culture where women are treated worse (often the opposite).
 
Steve said:
And look where it got me...STILL NO WOMEN IN CONTRUCTION!!!! I always wanted 6 chicks in hard hats sitting around on their lunch break whistling at ME when I walk by. Hells yeah!!!
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Is this close enough for ya?

Heidi-home-improvement-tv-show-22806252-1051-1400.jpg
 
Because the kitchen is their territory, and the "sammich" is the pinnacle of comfort foods. It's not just a meal - it's the holiest of all sandwiches.
 
canna said:
The women you hang around with must be pretty ugly if they have to "try" to get laid.
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even the ugly ones are only a couple drinks away from sex with someone if they want it at any given time.
 
From what i've seen with the women they know. Most of them lack the logical thought process required to excel in IT.

Thinking with your feelings ain't gonna get it done. Now i'm not saying women can't do it but the majority just don't have the right mind set.

And I have a sister so i'm basing this on experience. Half the time I cannot even see a logical thought behind half the shit she does.

The other issues if half the losers in IT would just make them feel uncomfortable. Nobody wants you undressing them your eyes all day because you can't get laid because you spend too much time on a computer lol.
 
BBA said:
Question: Who really gives a damn?
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Exactly.
If a woman wants to get into the field, there's nothing stopping them. If they don't, that's their choice. Not sure why its an issue the media keeps bringing up.
 
I've seen plenty of females at the Googleplex, I don't know what you guys are talking about. Maybe because its just software. Anything hardware related is still male dominated. My CS instructor told he rather hire females because their attention to detail is higher than males while males see the bigger picture better.
 
There are almost no women in the tech industy because they are not interested, and trying to get women into the industry sounds like a type of force, doooooooooooooooon't force a girl to do aaaaaanything she doesn't want to.

Imagine you're a guy and a group of people (mostly women) try to really encourage you to be a male nurse, how would you feel? Maybe you want to be a male nurse, great, but how about you just let people decide what they want to do with their lives and not play god.

Besides I've never met a girl that has complained about getting into the tech industry or working in the tech industry AND the few girls that are interested are already pursing other careers.

BTW I work with a few women in the tech industry and they have never ever ever ever complained or seemed unformatable at work.
 
AeonF1 said:
I've seen plenty of females at the Googleplex, I don't know what you guys are talking about. Maybe because its just software. Anything hardware related is still male dominated. My CS instructor told he rather hire females because their attention to detail is higher than males while males see the bigger picture better.
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The ratio is still heavily lopsided in software as well.

The real question is why is the media sexist? We always see stories about why there aren't more women in <insert engineering field here>, but how come we never see stories about why there aren't more men who are, say, psychologists? The answer is simple: men and women continue to gravitate towards different fields. Just as there are male dominated fields there are woman dominated fields.
 
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