Women in the Tech Industry

What occurs in the tech industry is often unknown to the outside world, however, there is
one commonly-known fact that worries some, and remains unnoticed by others: the fact that
there are many more men taking part in tech-related jobs than women. Although it has been
proven that there are more women found in smaller companies than large companies, women
often occupy less than 50% of most companies staff. In fact, not only does this occur, but larger
companies, as well as the government, keep diversity statistics hidden from the public as if it
needs to be hidden so as not to face the problem at all (Bacon, 2013). For precisely this reason,
people are forced to make assumptions, which lead to false accusations such as; the participation
of women in the tech industry and the skills of women in general are one in the same (Shved,
2010). To prevent accusations like this from occurring, we have to come to our own conclusions
by performing our own research and attempting to find a solution to this issue. In the following
paragraphs I will discuss some of the many theories as to why such few women participate in
tech-related jobs, why women are not worse programmers than men, and how to solve this
ongoing issue.
Ever since we were young, women have been exposed to several jobs, some of which
include; lawyers, doctors, veterinarians, and even astronauts, however we were never told that
being a computer programmer or an engineer were options. One common theory regarding the
lack of women in tech-related fields is because young girls and teenagers are uninformed about
these professions (Jong, 2012). It is obvious that not every woman is unaware as to what
computer science is, however many are, and education systems do very little to encourage their
female students to participate in these fields. Another theory as to why more men participate in
science and technology jobs is because women tend to have a wide range of interests, whereas
programming can consist of staring at a monitor for 18 hours straight which may not interest
women (Johnson, unknown). Furthermore, it has been suggested several times that young girls
do not have role models who are in tech-related occupations (Hughman, 2012). Young girls often
look at actresses and singers for inspiration, however there are no well-known tech-savvy women
in the media for them to look up to. One of the more obvious suggestions is sexism toward
women in this field. It is expected that when entering a company filled with men, that a women
is to be treated unequally, and this typically pushes women away especially if this is not their
passion but a mere career option. This can be displayed not only in the way that they are looked
at in a sexually, but also in such a way that they are undermined/do not get credit for their work,
or are treated as if their quality of work is of poorer quality than that of their male coworkers. An
article titled Women in science: Whoa, what are you doing here? discusses the success and
failure of attempting to bring more women into science and tech-related professions. In this
article, Laura Bates states, So why has progress been so slow since Lovelace blazed her trail
some two centuries ago? Partly because women in Stem are still battling attitudes towards
women that belong in the 19th century, (Bates, 2013). This statement supports the theory
that sexism is a leading cause to the lack of women in these professions because it shows that
women feel that they would not be secure in an environment consisting of mostly men due to
ancient beliefs. This leads to the question Are men better at tech-related jobs? which will be
explained in the following paragraph.
It is often assumed by, not only employers, but also by many in society today, that men
are better at STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) than women. This
however, is false. For example, if someone is having an interview to hire someone, and they are
sure that women are worse programmers than men, it does not mean that the probability of a
good women programmer coming in for the interview is lower than a good man programmer
coming in for the same interview. The reasoning behind this is because they are no longer
considering the abilities of all women and all men but rather, they are looking at all women
who are in computing and all men who are in computing (Shved, 2010). As exemplified by
this scenario, whether women are better or worse at programming than men does not matter, but
it depends on the amount of women who enter technological fields that matters. This is
exemplified in an article titled Are Women Worse Programmers Than Men? where Pavel
Shved states, In any case, no matter how small the ratio of good programmers among all
women you believe is, it tells you nothing about women in the profession, (Shved, 2010).
Which proves my point in the way that we cannot possibly know how many bad and good
female programmers there are in the world compared to those of men, but even if we were to
know, it would not matter because we are no longer focusing on the entire population of women
considering not all women are in the profession of programming. Something that often leads
many to the conclusion that women are worse programmers than men, is the lack of women in
STEM fields. Nevertheless, surveys taken from all over the world show that the number of
women in programming varies greatly from country to country. For example, 6% of women in
Denmark have jobs in programming, 55% of women in Thailand are involved in computer
programming, and 66%+ are in programming in Qatar (Shved, 2010). If women were worse at
STEM jobs than men, these results would be much more similar to one another. Although, if we
were to increase these numbers, we could potentially rid of such stereotypes. But, we seldom
know how to go about encouraging girls to seek a career in these occupations.
When faced with a problem, it is often difficult to come up with a solution. Therefore, I
will list some suggestions to encourage and inspire young women to pursue a career in STEM
fields. To begin, one of the ways of making women feel comfortable in this line of work is
exposing them to it at a young age. It is best to correct the negative perceptions toward lines of
work that are regarded as manly by encouraging women to focus on math and science and
show them lines of work that involve these subjects, starting at home and leading into school life
(unknown, 2013). Another way to get women involved is to encourage them by opening
workshops in order to allow them to experience what its like to work in the conditions you
would if you had that job. Programs are becoming more and more popular and it is important that
we keep them alive. One very important step to creating a community with women taking part in
male occupations is to educate them. Resources are available that allow girls to read about
experiences and opportunities that are open to them in these fields which gives them a starting
point of which they can grow. In an article titled Solving the Pipeline Problem: How to Get
More Women in Tech Anneke Jong makes the wonderful point that states, Lets include
computer scientist protagonists in childrens books and create toys that allow kids to play
programmer as easily as they play doctor. This quote supports the idea that we must educate
young girls on what computer science is as well as let them experience it for themselves. Lastly,
it is important to combat stereotypes. If women knew they had a secure place to do something
they are interested in/passionate about, many more women would want to experiment in these
fields.
As exemplified in this text, women are not inferior to men in the field of programming
nor anywhere else, which has been proven through the reasoning behind why few women choose
tech-related careers, the evidence which shows that women cannot possibly be worse than men at
programming, and how more women can participate in these jobs if we give the issue attention.
With this evidence, I believe that women can populate not only STEM careers but occupations of
all sorts if given the education and the time to do so.