21–30 of 37 posts
Get married, have kids, invest in their lives and share with them your passion for technology. If you have daughters, they may choose tech.
My wife and I have chosen not to have children - for reasons personal to us. That's why the outreach aspect (if I can't pass the torch along to my own, I want to pass it off to someone ) is big to me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an important point. While the industry isn't always super welcoming to women, that isn't the whole problem. Lots of women just have other interests. We'll probably see gender parity in IT when we see gender parity in nursing.
I would rephrase that further to say: are diverse interests between the genders a problem? I have never heard anyone complain that we have too few male teachers, nurses, or airline attendants.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure why this is such a problem; a tech degree isn't necessary to be successful as a software developer. It may not even be all that helpful.
Agreed. I am only one data point, but i have no degree and I am a female dev. We're out there.
Maciej Ceglowski is, I think, even worse off than I am. He went to art school. Now he controls the Internet from his perch atop Pinboard.
The reality is not that "careers in computers" are too hard to get into, or that we need them to be friendlier. In fact, I have personally found working in computers to be generally unfriendly across the board. I welcome any changes to make working in computers more attractive to women, because it would make it appeal more to myself as well. Since I already work in the field, it would just make the field better.
The fact is that a majority of women don't realistically want to be in the field once they know the full story of what is required to succeed in it.
I am aware of the people who have had computer careers and found them generally cheery, friendly, and easy, but I don't think this is the common case.
Mindset is important, shift your thinking from White Knight to Strategic Agility. Recruiting women to your team or company can be a huge competitive advantage, especially given the growing importance of diversity and global markets. Keep an eye out for the most talented women-- they will be your secret weapon.
(Full disclosure: I'm not part of our talent coordination / hiring efforts, everything is anecdotal here) A predominant amount of the applicants we see (we, as in, the people who are told that there's a phone screen or interview to be done) are male. It feels, strictly from my limited experience, that a big chunk of the problem is finding qualified female applicants. I'm not sure if it's a lack of female applicants p…
Same applies to recruiting talent. If you recognize a high-potential candidate-- help them connect with a hiring executive. You'll be seen by the higher-ups as a Big Picture thinker. Unfortunately, myopic corporate HR staff often fail to enlist the broader networks of existing employees.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an important point. While the industry isn't always super welcoming to women, that isn't the whole problem. Lots of women just have other interests. We'll probably see gender parity in IT when we see gender parity in nursing.
I would rephrase that further to say: are diverse interests between the genders a problem? I have never heard anyone complain that we have too few male teachers, nurses, or airline attendants.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an important point. While the industry isn't always super welcoming to women, that isn't the whole problem. Lots of women just have other interests. We'll probably see gender parity in IT when we see gender parity in nursing.
I would rephrase that further to say: are diverse interests between the genders a problem? I have never heard anyone complain that we have too few male teachers, nurses, or airline attendants.
You haven't looked. Programmes exist to increase the number of male teachers and male nurses.
Get married, have kids, invest in their lives and share with them your passion for technology. If you have daughters, they may choose tech.
My wife and I have chosen not to have children - for reasons personal to us. That's why the outreach aspect (if I can't pass the torch along to my own, I want to pass it off to someone ) is big to me.
Some here have mentioned interest & I agree. I think being a dev in general is a pretty lonely world. Multiply that by about 100 if you're a female dev. This is the same for anything STEM-related. I was the only girl in my high school physics class of 40+ boys, then 20 girls in 400 for CS & most dropped out by the end. I think you have to have some kind of underlying "geekiness" that makes you prefer looking at a screen vs anything else.
Most females that I know either A) don't know what a startup is at all or B) would love to learn to code, but shake it off as something they could never do. In the case of B), it would really only take one male/female to invite them to a meetup, hackathon, coworking session (or whatever) & perhaps that would be enough. I guess what I'm trying to say is, work out a way to make "tech" seem like something other than what non-tech females probably think it is - White men, incapable of non-awkward conversation, playing WoW on a Friday night in a dim-lit room.
The problem with getting women into tech is that so few women finish school with a tech degree, so no matter what you do, there's going to be a huge imbalance until this changes. It's very difficult to change career later in life, for both men and women. I think the greatest benefits come from getting girls excited about STEM careers, but this is a much longer term approach. I'm really dismayed at the peer pressure I…
Perhaps I am showing my age, but a significant fraction of the seriously good developers that I know do not have CS degrees and sometimes even university time. Heck, I am quite happy with my career, and I went to university before there were even CS degrees to be had.
I think this is more true in this field than any other.