wildchocolate

There’s a great big world out there — full of technological breakthroughs — like cars that drive themselves, lasers that can turn off cancer cells, homes that generate rather than consume energy… all just waiting for your passion, expertise, and skills to take things to the next level. So why is it that we let the majority of these energizing, life changing, incredible careers go to the guys? It’s about time we stepped it up don’t you think?

The Engineering Drought

There is a severe female drought in the engineering world, which is often attributed to a general lack of female interest in math and science related fields as compared to men. The typical undergraduate engineering school in America hovers around 10-25% female with computer science faring by far the worst; most programs are under 10% female. Excuse me for saying this, but what the hell is wrong with this picture? We are truly missing out here.

In her interview for the book Founders at Work, Ann Winblad, the co-founder of a successful accounting software company called Open Systems, was asked why there aren’t more women in software:

It’s first of all, a small number of women and an increasingly small number of any gender being inspired by math and science. It’s a big problem. You’d think, “Hey, this week in the news, the richest guy in the world — Bill Gates — the President of China is spending more time with him than the President. Steve Jobs, with this aspirational product, the iPod. Why don’t you want to be those guys?” They have inspirational products, inspirational lives, and it’s not like we’re under-covered in the media. Something is getting lost in the message here, where it should be really inspiring: “All I have to do is figure out this math-and-science thing, and I’m writing part of my ticket here.” Why that is not pulling not only women, but pulling everybody to say, “I want to be like those people”, I don’t know.

The power of thought and math and science and computing, you’re given that for free - it’s a choice you can make. You take that choice, and it gives you sort of a magic wand to be captain of an industry that’s still fairly young, that’s driving the whole world economy. I don’t know. This is just a mystery to me.

I’m with Ann — it’s a mystery. Let’s take a look at what some of the key issues might be here.

To quote Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, regarding his 13 year old daughter’s potential future in math and science:

My daughter, who is 13, is a math whiz, and she was just really focused on math and now that she’s 13, she’s worried about appearing too nerdy… so I don’t know if she’ll stick with it.

Now it’s starting to make some sense. The way I see it, there are 3 fundamental problems. Let me break it down for you…

Problem 1: Stereotypes, Peer Pressure, and the Media

I wish I could say that the stereotypes aren’t true, that there aren’t a higher percentage of awkward, anti-social people in engineering and computing than in say communications or journalism. But I would be lying. However, just because there are a higher percentage of introvert personalities in the field does not by any means say that there aren’t plenty of social, outgoing, good looking people pursuing these fields as well. I can tell you for a fact that there are. I know quite a few of them myself. Yes we may all be nerdy in the sense that we are passionate about math, science and the amazing applications they have on the world we live in. Yes, we are intelligent people, with good jobs, whose interests go beyond what happened Friday night. Here is where I think the media comes into play.

The media loves to portray women in engineering fields as the stereotypical introvert. The leader in this trend would have to be television…

Exhibit A: Dr Temperance Brennan (Bones) on Bones

Now I love the show personally, but every time I watch it I just get so aggravated. Why does the brilliant female anthropologist have to be cast as completely oblivious in terms of interpersonal skills and non-technical communication? Shouldn’t an anthropologist excel at these things? I’m just saying…

Exhibit B: Chloe O’Brian on 24

Again, huge fan of the show and of the character. But the computer whiz is quite awkward and incredibly bad at social interactions. Props to the show, however, for putting a female in the star programming role!

Exhibit C: Entire cast of The Big Bang Theory

Although I have only seen a couple episodes of this one, the theme is so in your face that it has to be mentioned. A bunch of genius physicists (all male) are contrasted with a hot blond (Penny) who is bubbly and completely out of their league. At least in this scenario, they all get along.

When you take just these three examples, it’s easy to find the trend. In the media, you can either be smart and introverted, OR you can be average intelligence, drop dead gorgeous, and outgoing. There is no in between. And considering that the media is a huge influence on young girls who want to be hot, social, and fun loving like Penny, it becomes a little less of a mystery why these girls are steering clear of the alternative — math and science yuk!

There’s also the roll of peer pressure. When all of your girlfriends are completely accepting of society’s portrayal of these stereotypes, it’s a little bit harder for a social, attractive young woman to confidently waltz into Advanced Computer Programming class in high school. And there begins the problem.

So why is it that more men are willing to overcome these obstacles and pursue these fields anyway? That’s a topic for another day…

Problem 2: The Just Say No to Nerds Mantra

Perhaps we need to re-define what exactly it means to be nerdy. To do so, we will need to start with the official meaning of the word:

Nerd is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests that are age-inappropriate rather than engaging in more social or popular activities. Therefore, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by peers, or will tend to associate with like-minded people. (Wikipedia)

Using this definition, nerd could certainly describe characters like Dr Brennan, but calling someone a nerd has become so commonplace that in practice, it’s often used to describe people who passionately pursue intellectual activities. Period. Without the rest of those conditions being at all applicable. Thus, it has become nerdy — and therefore negative — to have a passion for any intellectual subject at all, no matter how much or little of your life is defined by this point.

Problem 3: Fitting in is Hard to Do

Why would anyone who is extroverted possibly want to choose a path that would surround them with introverts? First of all, that’s not fair because as I have said, there are more and more people who have the whole package becoming engineers and computer scientists everyday. But I get it — the stereotype can frequently be reality and situations are always intimidating when you feel like you won’t fit in.

What I say to this issue: if you’re so social and outgoing, you don’t need every single co-worker or classmate to be the same in order to have a life. And the rewards of being involved in cutting edge math and science fields, making a wonderful living, and changing the world far surpass the social skills of your co-workers.

The Moral of the Story

Blaze your own trail. If we ladies don’t get in there, we lose. And the scale remains tipped in favor of the guys. Just like anything else — some of us will have to go first. And by all means, start coding!