Yes, girls are outperforming boys in high schools and college, but all is not perfect. Boys still dominate computer classes and, later, occupy most of the programming jobs in tech industry. According to Nitasha Tiku in the New York Times, the numbers are grim.
Last year, girls made up 18.5 percent of A.P. computer science test-takers nationwide, a slight decrease from the year before. In three states, no girls took the test at all. An abysmal 0.4 percent of girls entering college intend to major in computer science. And in 2013, women made up 14 percent of all computer science graduates — down from 36 percent in 1984.
The imbalance persists in the tech industry. Just this week, Google released data showing that women account for just 17 percent of its tech employees. The problem is not only getting girls to computer class, but keeping them there.
Tiku gives a shout out to my favorite computer game, Minecraft. She points out that girls are starting to play Minecraft, too, and this might be gateway program for other technology programs. I’m going to teach Ian how to use Scratch over this summer. This easy program might appeal to girls, too.
Girls might be avoiding computer classes, not just because there are boys in these classes, but because there are really nerdy boys in these classes. And some of them have been coding at home since they were ten. It’s intimidating to go into these classes as a complete novice. Even for the less nerdy boys.
Apt. 11d 
I lost Steve down a pit surrounded by 30 zombies/skeletons and with no escape route or nearby safe haven. I haven’t played since then because I know I’m going to get killed six more times before I can get back by enchanted diamond sword.
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Once again I will question the effectiveness of focusing on people studying computer science in college. The vast majority of the people I know in the IT industry do not have formal computer science education. And let’s face it, the people who teach computer science are not always but often people who washed out of the vast marketplace of options for IT professionals – they are far, far from compelling instructors.
I also think girls and women are more likely to be turned off by the heads-down nature of coding work. Not enough interaction with actual humans. There are tons of IT jobs that are not pure coding positions, and those roles have more women. I’m thinking of business analysis, process modeling, UI design, software project management.
That said, the Google numbers are upsetting. Does anyone have direct experience with Google’s culture? Is it a brogrammer’s paradise?
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I don’t know if it is true that girls will be turned off by the lack of human interaction in coding or if we put too much pressure on girls (and women) in the social department to begin with. When I was in high school in the early 80s I asked our computer science teacher why the movies always showed boy hackers. This was when the movie War Games was popular. She replied that girls didn’t get as much support for spending a lot of time focusing on one thing, and were more encouraged to be social than boys. Was this true and is it still true?
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“The only way to win is not to play.”
Sorry, had to say it. 🙂
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This summer, my husband is going to be teaching a computer game design mini-course as part of a gifted program. They started out asking him to do two sections (one middle school, one high school), but there are so many kids on the waitlist that they’re asking him to teach a third section. He’d previously done an Hour of Code event for 5th and 6th graders at the kids’ school last fall.
We know of two of C’s classmates who are signed up for or wanted to get into the game design course. Both are Asian girls.
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[I]n 2013, women made up 14 percent of all computer science graduates — down from 36 percent in 1984
This is extremely misleading, in that it implies a slow (or perhaps recent) tapering off from the 1984 baseline.
Like the two smaller booms since, the early-1980s computer boom saw a surge in CS enrollment (along with that 34% female major ratio) which collapsed by the end of that decade. (See neat graph) Male-to-female ratios have been nearly constant (and constantly sad) ever since around 1990.
As much as dislike it, I think the recent rise in “brogrammers” is accompanied by a rise in women getting into CS: both of them are a function of perceived high salaries. After the next bust, CS may return to its core of awkward, overwhelmingly-male sci-fi fans.
None of my friends at Google portray it as “brogrammery” in any way, particularly compared with some portions of the start-up world. My favorite comment on the Google report was someone noting that they did not include breakdowns by age. (To be fair, I perceive Google as far less age-ist than most tech companies, and know at least one engineer there in his 50’s.)
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What is the percentage of women in the pool Google recruits from? Without that context this doesn’t tell us much.
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Does this mean it would be “perfect” if the girls did better in school and had a majority of the CS jobs? Why would that be good? Whom would my daughter marry? Some slacker?
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If she makes enough money, she can afford to expense of divorce/alimony and get a new slacker every 10 to 20 years.
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So, I teach coding in an all girls’ school. And we’re talking about teaching coding in high school, not college. Though I think pursuing CS through college is a great idea, too. Imagine walking into your first Spanish I class in college, meant for students who’ve never had Spanish, only to find out that your classmates have actually been learning Spanish in their basement since middle school, and took a trip to Mexico their junior year in high school where they were required to only speak Spanish. That’s what many women feel like in their first year CS class in college (anecdote thanks to Ashley Gavin at Girls Who Code).
Look, the IT field is whole different thing from pursuits that require a CS degree. With a CS degree, we’re talking about thinking about the big issues in computing–big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning–not building web sites or doing system administration. We’re talking about building things not managing stuff. It’s like the difference between an Economist and an Accountant. Both are fine pursuits in their own right, but they’re different. Computer Science gives you the ability to think about ways that computation can help solve big problems and then possibly build tools using code to help solve the problem.
Also, I take issue with this: “And let’s face it, the people who teach computer science are not always but often people who washed out of the vast marketplace of options for IT professionals – they are far, far from compelling instructors.” Not true of most of the CS teachers I know. Most of them love teaching and chose to teach instead of going down another path. Most of the teachers I know didn’t try for a “regular job.” They got a CS degree and an education degree and got lucky and found a teaching job. A few were engineers or were in the IT industry, but starting teaching on the side and fell in love with it, so switched jobs. Would you say that English teachers washed out of the journalism, writing, editing market? Or that Science teachers washed out of the many science-oriented jobs out there. Teaching is hard. It takes time and skill to teach complex topics like computer science to 12 year olds.
/soapbox
Anyway, as is probably obvious, I support teaching coding to girls. It’s not a lonely, egotistical pursuit. Paired with other disciplines, like biology, economics, business, it can be extraordinarily powerful. We need more women with that power and those skills.
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I am myself a former developer and am totally on board with spreading the development love. And I really wish I had encountered some of geekymom’s friends in my interactions with CS instructors. I was being kind in my comment, knowing that I haven’t met everyone – but I have never, ever met a high school CS teacher who is as charismatic and fired up as an average, good high school English or foreign language teacher. And I have sadly seen several people wash out of for-profit IT and land in education or non-profit IT.
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Maybe I’m hanging with all the right people. 🙂 I have seen what you’re talking about, but I hope the movement to get CS into schools and set some guidelines and standards will reduce the number of IT washouts from taking refuge in education.
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Isn’t coding mostly an auxiliary skill rather than an end in itself? (This seems to be part of geekymom’s message – IT and CS are bigger than just coding.) I learned python when I needed to for a project at work. I had friends in grad school who learned C++ for particular projects as well. Coding is a good thing to learn, but it won’t necessarily push people into IT. When we are hiring at an entry level, we look for people that can code, but that can’t be the only skill someone has for us.
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Yes, coding–programming is a particular skill. But coding is also a big way problems are solved in CS. The coding most people do in IT or as an auxiliary skill is pretty rudimentary. To me CS is a way of thinking about things, the way Political Science people tend to think through things using that lens (to use our hostess’ field).
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http://adainitiative.org/
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My husband is a Code Monkey (slang for software engineer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA. I’m shocked at some of the above comments, which facilitate many misconceptions. Sorry Tulip and GeekyMom, but in NO WAY are software engineers ability to code be viewed as “auxiliary skill.” Auxiliary to what? I believe coding CAN lead people to careers in IT. During the last 10 years, coders have been in the top 10 growth fields, and if you examine trends for the next 30 years, software engineers–yes code monkeys–remains in the top 10 fields for growth with average salaries in the US currently at 90-105k. If you are articulate and can write prose (in addition to code) add another 40-50k and this isn’t even in the financial industry. While women have gained more traction in the industry at large, as project managers, business analysts, and quality assurance testers for example, women remain vastly underrepresented in the role of software engineers.
Yes, where are the girl coders?
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I don’t think coding is auxiliary for a software engineer. No way! But for a biological researcher, maybe. I did say IT, but I don’t think of IT jobs as code heavy and I don’t put software engineers in that category. And ditto exactly what you said about job prospects. I use those stats with my students all the time. And I just came from a workshop where a woman switched from law to working as a developer because the work hours were more flexible, they pay for training and people were nice to her.
I come at CS from more of an academic perspective and that bias is showing in my comments, but my experience is more practical, coding on the job.
I would love to see some of my students become software engineers!
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There must be a trick, like you have to work more than 40 hours a week or don’t get 30 days paid time off a year or something. If not, I should sell out. Whatever ‘C’ is, can’t be that much harder than SAS.
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My husband writes code. He has tutored friends’ and relatives’ children in learning how to code. He claims our daughter was faster than many boys in picking up the basics.
She, however, bailed after learning a bit. When I have suggested she should take a programming course, she told me, emphatically, “I would rather die. The idea of spending my whole life staring at machines would make me want to die.”
So that’s a barrier.
To enter or not enter the programming work force is a conscious choice. I think claiming girls don’t find the guys cool enough, or that they aren’t able to figure out salaries underestimates their decision-making process.
I think one way to increase female coders is not to make a pink programming language, or to do silly female-centric things. Round up female programmers who are finding it easier to make family life work, because employers are willing to work around their schedule. There are lots of businesses which need some programming done on a maintenance basis. Schools, for example, will always need someone to look after their databases and computer systems. Someone to patch up machines, and police their network.
There are lots of jobs for people with computer skills which could work for a woman who wants a “family-friendly” schedule. Maybe they’re not planning to become a Master of the Universe. There are any number of female students being pushed into nursing because their families believe it’s a rational career choice, which 1) pays well, and 2) has flexible scheduling.
Point out to families that programming can fit the same niche for women. Make them see it as a female-friendly career path, on the level of nursing and teaching. Even, perhaps, teaching the next generation how to program could be interesting. As a matter of fact, I just ran into a friend who returned to teaching after her children were grown. She’s finding a part of her job is teaching middle schoolers about computers.
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We signed our youngest up for a coding course at UVA this summer. I am so hoping she will fall in love with it and want to make this her life’s work. I’m also really worried that the other students will all be hypercompetitive boys and she will feel driven out before she has even started. A couple of the seven sister’s type women’s colleges have summer coding courses specifically for girls. I have that on the radar for when she is older.
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