Comment Women don't do geek becomes other women don't (Score 2, Interesting) 693
Women don't play video games because other women don't play video games.
Women don't study engineering because other women don't study engineering.
Women don't like math because other women don't like math.
Its not true for all women - there are women engineers (I am one of them) but in general its a true statement - the biggest impediment to women in engineering is not having a peer group of other women engineers.
But its not what happens in college that matters - the problem starts in middle school and earlier.
Women and men are both heavily influenced by peer pressure. The difference with computers and engineering in general is while there are 10 year olds playing video games, hacking computers and building Lego Mindstorms. If you are a girl who likes computers - you're going to have a hard time finding any other girl in class to share that with.
And thats how it goes - the divide starts early, in the days when peer pressure matters way more than interests.
When I started college I had been coding since I was eight, I knew about 7 programming languages, and had a 720 on the math SAT. On paper, I was a well prepared freshman computer science major. But I was screwed when I got to college Computer Science courses because I hadn't taken and formal computer science classes in high school.
The bias starts early - girls don't do computers because other girls don't do computers. If I had taken AP Computer Science I would have become a social pariah among my female friends. At age 15, I wasn't really keen to be a pioneer. Most girls aren't. And if the roles were reversed - most high school boys wouldn't be that brave either. (How many men study Literature?)
If you want more female engineers, you fix the culture at age 10 - not age 20.
Women don't study engineering because other women don't study engineering.
Women don't like math because other women don't like math.
Its not true for all women - there are women engineers (I am one of them) but in general its a true statement - the biggest impediment to women in engineering is not having a peer group of other women engineers.
But its not what happens in college that matters - the problem starts in middle school and earlier.
Women and men are both heavily influenced by peer pressure. The difference with computers and engineering in general is while there are 10 year olds playing video games, hacking computers and building Lego Mindstorms. If you are a girl who likes computers - you're going to have a hard time finding any other girl in class to share that with.
And thats how it goes - the divide starts early, in the days when peer pressure matters way more than interests.
When I started college I had been coding since I was eight, I knew about 7 programming languages, and had a 720 on the math SAT. On paper, I was a well prepared freshman computer science major. But I was screwed when I got to college Computer Science courses because I hadn't taken and formal computer science classes in high school.
The bias starts early - girls don't do computers because other girls don't do computers. If I had taken AP Computer Science I would have become a social pariah among my female friends. At age 15, I wasn't really keen to be a pioneer. Most girls aren't. And if the roles were reversed - most high school boys wouldn't be that brave either. (How many men study Literature?)
If you want more female engineers, you fix the culture at age 10 - not age 20.
