Role models and networking are helpful tools for women in STEM. But we need more than that. Founders and other leaders need to become allies and take responsibility for the cultures that discourage women.
Recently I was scrolling through LinkedIn and I was served a promotional post about a young woman in computer science (CS). This person started in a CS program in the 2010s and is now a senior software developer. The company’s post went on to discuss how she was one of few women in the program but that she did not get discouraged and is successful in this field.
I think, the company was trying to promote this young woman as a role model to encourage more women to enter computer science. This is an admirable objective.
I agree that the lack of women in STEM programs in North America is an issue that needs to be addressed. To create solutions that work for all, we need a diverse group of people working on them. Why? People tend to develop solutions based on their own experience of the world. Even when they gain more insight through feedback, I think the overall result is biased.
So why did the social media post make me wince?
The unique thing about programming, as compared to engineering, is that women previously made up a much larger percentage of computer programmers than they do now. Yup, the peak participation of women in programming was in 1970s, with estimates as high as 50% depending on the branch of the field. And, this was at a time when the North American culture was much less supportive of women working outside the home.
Thanks to Hollywood, many people are at least somewhat aware of extraordinary women as mathematicians and programmers in The Space Program. And, many of us have at least heard of Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr. But just like today’s ordinary software developers contribute to products in an incremental way, so did women in programming in the early years. Not all of these women in programming were outliers.
When we talk about attracting more women into computer science, I think we need to consider history. Some of the cultural challenges that deterred the continued participation of women in this field are likely still present. Without a little consideration into what happened, we may waste good will, energy, and money trying to solve the wrong issue.
I am not convinced that role models alone are enough because clearly when there was a significant number of women as programmers (and managers) the role models were already in place. Even a popular women’s magazine promoted becoming one of the “computer girls”.
There are historians and social scientists who have studied the problem. Some excellent books include Gender Codes and The Computer Boys take Over. I am not a researcher in this area…so I suggest you educate yourself on the extent of participation of women in 20th century computer science.
Since this is an opinion piece, I will speak to my personal observations on the profession (with some references). Here are some reasons why I think the numbers dwindled and we struggle to see improvement in the number of women in tech:
1) Barriers to entry.
We, as a culture, have gendered programmer roles as male. By sharing that preference of men as programmers, as opposed to women, we reinforce the idea that girls don’t belong. I think a significant part of that is marketing toys as masculine and feminine. Consider the marketing of tech, video games, gamer competitions, etc., which enforces tech as masculine. Also, I think the hyper-sexualization of gaming avatars make games less appealing to girls. This is relevant because gaming is often the gateway to coding. Finally, I think the western education system favors early (teenage) prowess in coding for post-secondary education in CS. I think this is a skill that girls leaving high school don’t often have.
2) Early career disillusionment.
I find the bro culture to be unwelcoming to women. If a woman completes her training and continues in the STEM path of the workforce, the culture in tech is sexist and its hard to fit in. Sometimes the culture challenges are subtle (exclusion from activities) and sometimes it can be overt (belittlement in meetings). This continual incivility can be exhausting. I think that young women are not prepared for the culture in tech. We are still telling girls that hard work will get them far, leaving them to be blindsided and discouraged with the reality.
4) Mid to late career leaky pipeline.
Tech-lay offs, burnout, tired of trying to fit in, are just a few of the reasons why women leave STEM careers after the effort of launching it. Tech lay-offs have disproportionately hit women, and not just because of the roles they fill. The typical hours don’t support the notion of your life being anything other than work. Women are still the default caregiver and the hours don’t recognize or support the outside of work commitments. In simple terms, women get burnt out.
Clearly I believe that role models, especially ordinary ones, are important. However, telling women to “lean-in”, get mentors, become role models, and create networks is only part of their part of the solution. The tech culture needs to change and we need powerful business leaders as allies for that to happen. That’s the challenge. Any takers?
