Will Peggy the Programmer Be the New Rosie the Riveter?

theodp writes "The Mercury News' Mike Cassidy reports that women are missing out on lucrative careers in computer science. 'The dearth of women in computing,' writes Cassidy, 'has the potential to slow the U.S. economy, which needs more students in the pipeline to feed its need for more programmers. It harms women by excluding them from some of the best jobs in the country. And it damages U.S. companies, which studies show would benefit from more diverse teams.' The promise of better financial results, says Anita Borg Institute Director Denise Gammal, is making diversity a business imperative. It's 'the sort of imperative that cries out for a movement,' argues Cassidy, 'maybe this time one led not by Rosie the Riveter, but by Peggy the Programmer.' So, where will Peggy the Programmer come from? Well, Google is offering $100 to girls attending U.S. public high schools who complete a Codecademy JavaScript course. 'Currently only 12% of computer science graduates are women,' explains Codecademy, 'and great tech companies like Google want to see more smart girls like you enter this awesome profession!' Google joins tech giant-backed Code.org in incentivizing teachers to bring the next generation of girls to the CS table.

But Silicon Valley claims the talent crisis is now (although there are 19 billion reasons to question SV's hiring acumen). So, what about the women who are here now, asks Dr. AnnMaria De Mars. 'If you are overlooking the women who are here now,' De Mars writes, 'what does that tell the girls you are supposedly bringing up to be the next generation of women in tech that you can overlook 15 years from now? Why do we hear about 16-year-old interns far more than women like me? If it is true, as the New York Times says, that in 2001-2 28% of computer science degrees went to women compared to the 10% or so now — where are those women from 12 years ago? It seems to me that when people are looking at minorities or women to develop in their fields, they are much more interested in the hypothetical idea of that cute 11-year-old girl being a computer scientist someday than of that thirty-something competing with them for market share or jobs. If there are venture capitalists or conference organizers or others out there that are sincerely trying to promote women who code, not girls, I've never met any. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but it means that whoever they are seeking out, it isn't people like me.'"

Comments

wait,, is this LifeTime??

[Anonymous Coward]

since when did /. turn into the LifeTime network??
Where all men are evil, and women can do no wrong..

But seriously, I could grasp as the fact where this may appeal to the more feminine crowd.
But how does it really relate to the community at large?
Hence the referral to LifeTime.. A place where crap like this is more appropriate and tolerated, accordingly..

if I want cable crap I turn on lifetime and get a restful sleep, to others the affects may be different, but run along the same parallel.
If I want stuff that I am used to seeing on /., perhaps, with the propagation from their "dice" overlords this article, I may go elsewhere.

I am not a chauvinist vby any stretch, just pointing out the facts..

Thanks Dice, any more resumes posted as a result of this article..

Hmm speculative @ best I bet. right,,

c ya

Re:Todd the Teacher..

[Fwipp]

You missed the big one.

Todd the Teacher.

Men have been practically excluded from teaching, by being painted with the sexist assumptions
that they are all child molesters and pedophiles with nothing positive to contribute.

In comparison to this particular problem, an imbalance in programmers is nothing.. bias in the
teaching of our children should be a huge priority, and yet, its not....

Well, maybe you can start by combating the sexist assumptions that women are naturally more nurturing (a story uniquely suited to keeping those pesky women in the home). You can follow up by setting teacher pay to a reasonable level, so that they're competitively compensated for the amount of schooling and long hours that they need to put in.

The patriarchy (I wonder if I'll get modded down for using that word) tells us that women are gentler, weaker creatures more suited for "family" work than men are. Men are taught to assert their masculinity by displaying their power over others, which combined with the narrative of "men can't help raping women," naturally leads us to be suspicious of any man transgressing those gender roles. Because men are coded (by our culture) as inherently sexual beings, we assume their motivations for pursuing a "feminine" job are also sexual - that is, that they must be sexually interested in the children they are supposed to protect.

(I personally don't know anybody who has a problem with male teachers, but I'm going to take you at face value that this is a real problem that you've faced.)

Re:Sigh..

[AmiMoJo]

The problem is they're measuring success by the standard of equal outcome on the false premise that men and women are physically and psychologically the same

You idiot. TFS says that nearly 30% of computer science degrees went to women 12 years ago, compared to 10% now. TFS is not arguing for equality of outcome, merely trying to address the decline. Do you think that 18% of 2001-2 graduates were forced at gunpoint to do that course, just to make up the numbers? And now the decline is because no-one is forcing women to do CS any more?

If you can't be bothered to even read TFS please just fuck off. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but this story is littered with similarly moronic comments about how everyone who thinks there is a problem just wants there to be a 50/50 ratio but actually no-one (except you) is saying that. By always introducing that straw man it makes it difficult to improve the situation, so how about you just go RTFA for once and at least make some token effort to stop being part of the problem it talks about?