May 13, 2004

Red Rover, Red Rover, will the girls please come over
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 11:23 PM -

BusinessWeek's special report "Technology's Too-Small Sisterhood," discusses some of the grim statistics about the male/female ratio of tech execs. Of grave concern is the rapidly declining number of women pursuing computer science and engineering degrees:

In 1985, women received 37% of all U.S. computer science undergraduate degrees. By 2000 that had fallen to 28%. At top-tier institutions of higher learning, [Telle Whitney, the president and CEO of the Institute for Women in Technology] says, the number is now below 20%.

This is in contrast to the trend in other scientific disciplines. Women now earn more than 50% of all degrees in the biological sciences. And fields such as psychology and biology have experienced dramatic increases in female participation. "If women are earning 55% of bachelor's degrees but only 18% of engineering bachelor's degrees, that's a concern to us," says Elena Silva, research director at the educational foundation the American Association of University Women. "We still don't have a proportional number of women preparing for these positions."

So how do we get the girls' interested in computers? I'm not sure. But how about this: I'll encourage my son to step away from his computer and be an English major, if anyone out there with daughters disconnects their cellphones and attempts to get them hooked on computer science. How? Sorry, but I can't help you there. After all, I was an English major.

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