Despite the astonishing growth of high-paying jobs in the tech world, the number of young women entering computer-related careers is small–and shrinking.
While women now account for slightly more than half of U.S. Internet users, they are barely visible in the ranks of computer scientists, engineers and programmers.
But does it matter to the economy, or to society, if women sit out the tech revolution? Would anything be different if women held half of the tech jobs available?
“Yes” was the emphatic answer from a pair of the tech world’s leading female executives, who recently joined a sea of white males at the Aspen Summit, an annual conference on the digital revolution sponsored by the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a non-profit research group.
They argued that if women played a larger role in the technology-driven sector of the economy, it would be much healthier, with more stable companies, fewer labor shortages, lower costs and higher sales.
“My political side says women are no different [from men], but they are,” said Esther Dyson, chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a new international agency charged with setting policy for the Internet’s infrastructure. “Whether it’s nature or nurture, they have different concerns.”
And because of their different perspectives, women would help stabilize an industry that has become too chaotic, Dyson said. For example, she said, one of the top concerns of many young male techies is to become a chief executive officer as quickly as possible.
“If you look at how this industry works right now, there are too many companies where some guy just decided he wanted to be CEO, so he went out and did something that was redundant,” she said, referring to the wild proliferation of dot-com businesses in the late 1990s.
Today, many of those me-too companies are collapsing, dragging down the tech stock market and vaporizing capital. “It’s great to see the outpouring of entrepreneurship, but at the same time, there is this arrogance that says `I’m going to do it,’ as opposed to saying, `Gee, someone is already doing it–let me help them do it better.”‘
A more female-influenced industry also might be better at understanding consumers’ needs, said Julie Shimer, a vice president for 3Com Corp. and general manager of its consumer business. “The engineering pressure right now is very technology-gee-whiz focused, but there’s not much on `Why would I want to do this? How would I use it responsibly?”‘ she said.
If half of all engineers were female, “I think technology would be easier to understand, and it would be targeted more at women and children,” Shimer said.
Dyson said “friendlier” products also could reduce business costs because companies “might spend less money on tech support,” she said, referring to the legions of workers who answer customers’ questions about products and services.
But female perspectives are lacking because, outside of the National Football League, few enterprises are as male-dominated as the tech world.
The U.S. Commerce Department estimates that while women represent 51 percent of the population, they make up only 26 percent of the computer scientists and 9 percent of the engineers working today.
But even those ranks soon will thin as the pipeline of female tech majors dries up. Only about 25 percent of computer science bachelor’s degrees will go to young women this year, down from 37 percent at the peak in 1984, according to the American Association of University Women. And at the high school level, girls represent only 17 percent of the computer science “advanced placement” test takers.
While women’s participation in computer science has been decreasing, many girls are flocking to other fields that require intensive study of math and science. For example, women now make up about 40 percent of students pursuing medical degrees and master’s degrees in business administration.
Indeed, women are swarming over U.S. campuses, where they now outnumber males 56 percent to 44 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
So why are they shunning the tech world?
An AAUW study found that girls regard computer-related jobs as “boring” and “lonely.”
Dyson said that perception is fostered by the entertainment media, which tend to use “geeky guys” to portray lonely computer workers. “Girls get a wrong message,” Dyson said. “Programmers often work together and trade ideas. It’s some of the more interesting work because they are solving problems. You’re not doing the same thing again and again. It’s very creative.”
The AAUW study found that girls also say teachers make computers seem boring by focusing on the technical properties of hardware, rather than on innovative uses of computers.
Finally, the AAUW study showed girls are turned off by the idea of working extremely long hours.
In the computer industry, “some people do work a lot,” Dyson said. “But I think that, frankly if you had more women in it, you’d have more people to hire and nobody would need to work quite so much.”
Indeed, if more young women were entering tech fields, the industry would be better able to restrain its runaway labor costs. A survey of nearly 5,000 college students last spring found that of those planning to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering, 51 percent expect a starting salary offer of between $51,000 and $70,000 a year, according to CollegeHire, an Austin, Texas-based high-tech recruiting firm.
Instead of focusing solely on paying higher salaries, tech executives would do well to concentrate on making the workplace friendlier to people who want to maintain a home life, Dyson said. Such changes would also help the industry attract more young men, who also have started avoiding computer-related fields.
The total number of U.S. undergraduates earning computer and information science degrees declined from a high of 41,889 in 1986 to just 24,768 in 1997. The Information Technology Association of America says technology-driven companies have about 800,000 jobs now open or projected to be open through the end of this year.
For a quick fix to the labor shortage, the industry has been hammering Congress to nearly double the current cap of 115,000 on the visas that allow high-skilled foreigners to work here for up to six years.
But long-term, a better solution would be to make the computer lab feel less like a stay-up-all-night fraternity house. Providing more humane working hours, child-care help and vacation time would attract far more people, both male and female, to the industry.
