04: Diversity & Women in STEM

Whether or not the gender gap in STEM fields is "overblown," the statistics are blatant. According to recent reports, women make up only 18% of Computer Science graduates, although women earn more college degrees than men. Why is this so? The first reason is that women, throughout almost all of history, have taken the role as caretaker. Once women were actually allowed to pursue careers in the 20th century, they generally gravitated toward roles which utilized their nurturing qualities -- teaching, healthcare, assistants etc. Secondly, grade schools and high schools in the United States do a poor job introducing programming and computer science. I went to an all-girls high school known for its rigorous English and Writing courses. Although students still did well in math and science, a computer course did not even exist. However, the all-boys brother school of equal calibre offered several courses in computer science and introductory programming courses. Because of this, a significantly larger percentage of boys than girls applied to college for engineering and computer science.

Women have a tendency to ask fewer questions in the classroom than men. While it seems silly to say, many women are unfortunately still intimidated by their male peers. Therefore, why would women want to be sitting in male-dominated classrooms, especially with men who have an edge-up in computer science? Harvey Mudd College offers a great solution to this problem. It separates introductory CS classes based on varying skill levels. More boys than girls come into college with some sort of programming skills from video games, computer tinkering, etc. A Pinterest engineer says that her male peers finished assignments quickly and efficiently while she spent five times the hours on the same tasks. By separating classes, girls would feel less intimidated to ask more questions and compare themselves to boys with already years of experience.

At my internship this summer, I was the only girl on my team. Although none of the men made me feel lesser because I was a girl, having another female co-worker (or even two) as support would have made me feel less anxious and nervous when I worked on assignments. I think that having even just a small subset of women on a project significantly boosts confidence. Notre Dame's engineering program has done an incredible job keeping women in engineering. In 2002, more than half of females who started in engineering dropped the major for another field. Cathy Pieronek, who was Notre Dame's College of Engineering Associate Dean for Academic Affairs before her passing, revamped the Women in Engineering Program at the university. Before Cathy took this role, the Office of Housing at Notre Dame would place 6-7 engineering-intended women in each dorm. Cathy proposed that the university place larger groups of 20 in 6 dorms across campus to allow female engineers to study together and create larger support systems. By 2014, only 15% of women who started in engineering dropped to other majors. In 2013, women made up 26% of engineering graduates at Notre Dame, compared to 19% nationally.

Solving the gender gap in technology is not going to occur overnight because the majority of history has given women a societal role in care-taking. However, teaching girls at a young age that "computers are cool," introducing programming classes in high school, and creating a system of support with other technologically interested women will begin to bridge the gap.