Getting women into tech begins in the classroom
High school junior Vivian Taylor remembers reading a disturbing story about a female computer science professional.
“She was verbally harassed in her computer science lecture at a college. It upset me,” said Vivian, who hopes to become a CS professional herself. “If the world wants more women in these career paths, why don’t they stop the harassment when the women work their way into them?”
It’s a valid question. Women still report “unacceptably high rates of discrimination and harassment,” per a report about women in tech by Ensono, and a study by ARRIS Composites found that one in four women in tech don’t feel valued at work.
Have you ever experienced any of the following situations or scenarios in the workplace? U.S. female tech workers:
22%
21%
20%
Verbal abuse / sexual harassment / intimidation (3-way tie)
Intimidation only
Microaggressions / My ideas are dismissed in group settings (tie)
Source: Ensono
The number of women holding tech positions is barely growing. Gains from 2019 to 2022 were minimal: Deloitte reported that in those three years, the number of women in tech leadership roles was expected to be up just 4 percentage points and female tech workers in large global tech firms up just 2 percentage points.
Based on Vivian’s own experience, such dismal figures may have historical roots.
Female students lack encouragement
According to a 2020 Google-Gallup study:
“Adults encourage young boys more often than they encourage girls to pursue a career in computer science. About half of boys report that an adult in their life has encouraged them to pursue a career in computer science, compared with just 37% of girls.”
Enthusiastic about CS in middle school, Vivian encountered fewer opportunities for computer science education as she moved through the school system.
“The only computer science courses I took were in middle school so far,” Vivian said. “They had two elective classes, coding and computer tech. For the three years I was there, I managed to retake most of them every year and get all As. But after my coding teacher had me for three years, she said she had nothing left to teach me. So, I became her student helper, correcting code on other students’ work and doing the boring chores like printing out papers.”
Vivian also got to help a teacher at another school: her mother. Tasked with coming up with a new, creative class period, she asked her daughter to demonstrate how coding works for her students.
“It was super awkward but cool. I was a seventh-grader teaching others my own age,” Vivian said.
Sadly, CS sunk virtually out of sight in high school.
At her school, AP CS A and AP CS Principles I and II compete with algebra I, algebra II, geometry, pre-calculus, trigonometry, business math/personal finance, finite math, ACP finite math, ACP/IB calculus and AP statistics/probability in fulfilling a six-credit math requirement.
Fortunately, Vivian found CS outside of school. First, she joined an after-school STEM club while a sophomore.
“It was pretty isolating, even though we were all nerds, because I was the only non-senior and everyone else was interested in chemistry and medical science. But the teacher ended up finding me on my way to class one day and mentioned she’d send me an email of coding camps and summer programs.”
That’s how Vivian learned about Nextech Catapult, an immersive computer science program with a summer internship and workshops throughout the school year. The timing was perfect, as Vivian (like so many students) was trying to catch up from time lost to the pandemic.
“After COVID-19, I was really hard on myself and needed to regain my confidence. I thought spending time with people who share my interests, planning my future and learning valuable skills would help, so I applied for Catapult,” she said.
Vivian didn’t feel isolated or ignored with this group.
“There were a lot of girls! I was surprised. Before Catapult, I couldn’t really visualize how many women were in STEM or tech jobs or how many girls my age wanted to work in it.”
Though she feared being less prepared than students who’d taken CS courses in high school, she found herself part of a mixture of experience and talent levels, with Catapult instructors prepared for them all.
“By the end, I felt really advanced. I was in the top seven finalists of the Catapult Showcase portfolio competition. I was able to make everything I visualized, which is hard.”
Industry undervalues women in tech
Unlike the quarter of adult women working in tech today, Vivian felt no difference in how Catapult values young men and women.
“I made connections with a lot of people in the group, and I never saw any differences in how we were treated,” she said.
Employers of tech workers should take note. Though adults can’t attend Catapult, training and education are widely available; still, two-thirds of women in tech say their employers don’t offer such opportunities. Quoting the Enseno study:
“That’s a major missed opportunity to invest in and retain female tech workers—particularly considering that around 20% of them across geographies plan on moving on to a new job in the next year. And in the U.S. and India, more learning and development opportunity was the No. 1 feature women in tech said they would look for in a new job.”
Vivian hasn’t decided on her career yet, but she’s interested in the design aspect of tech.
“I’m leaning toward degrees like UI/UX Design, game design and Web design. And my dream job, which is a bit of a reach, is UI/UX designer at a game company,” she said.
The notion that her dream job is “a bit of a reach” for this 17-year-old underscores the need for young women like her to see females in tech jobs, tech leadership and on tech boards. What will it take to make significant gains in these numbers?
“I feel like you just have to wait for a brave woman to take the job and inspire others,” Vivian said. “Nextech has made me so confident in establishing connections and asking questions. I’ve been using LinkedIn to connect with other women who have jobs and roles I think are cool, and they’ve been extremely supportive. I want to thank the people I’ve been talking to and definitely suggest anyone start doing this when they have questions.”