-A slow US economy
-Women excluded from the best jobs in the country
-Damage to US companies due to lack of diversity
What do those 3 things have in common? If you guessed results from lack of women in computer science careers, you're absolutely correct!
This article discusses some of the numbers of the lack of women in computer science/technology related careers. Here are some of them:
*US universities will graduate about 400,000 computer scientists between 2010 and 2020. During this time, 1.4million US computing jobs will open up. There's a gap of about 1million jobs.
*Those 1million jobs would pay $500billion in wages.
*Women make up not even 1/5 of computer science graduates.
*4 of the 20 top-paying jobs for women are in computing.
*In computing, about 1/4 of workers are female.
These statistics are mind blowing. Women make up half the population but don't even come close to making up that percentage in the computing world. With technology advancing at the extremely high pace it is, women can't afford to not be part of it. It's a huge piece of the economy that women aren't participating in and it has got to change.
The article calls for another "Rosie the Riveter" movement. If you recall, this movement was when women entered the workforce in factory jobs during World War II to make up for the men being away at war. Another such movement should be happening now with the gap of skilled workers needed to enter the computing world. Instead of forcing employers to export the jobs, import workers, or worst yet, leave the positions empty, women should be the ones taking these positions.
I couldn't admire Maria Klawe more after reading the article. She's the president of Claremont Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California and a computer scientist who has boosted the female CS enrollment to 43% at the school. This number is amazing and should be happening all across the country, not just in one college.
I'm not sure what about computing doesn't catch a woman's interest. They're high-paying jobs and extremely flexible. What more could a woman wanting to raise a family ask for? A lot of money and a lot of flexibility as to how to make it!
I completely agree with this article that more women should be obtaining degrees in computer science and similar degrees so they will be able to partake in all the amazing jobs that will be available. Just as the article puts it, the time for a movement to take place is NOW! Maybe not by Rosie the Riveter, but by Peggy the Programmer.
Copy the below link to go to the original article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mike-cassidy/ci_25224467/women-missing-out-lucrative-careers-computer-science
