Where Did All the Girl Geeks Go? - Address the PR Issue (
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There are several theories about how and why girls are losing interest in
technology long before they reach college, but the most commonly heard is that
computer science and the field of IT suffer from terrible public relations.
Many students—and, perhaps more pertinently, their parents—still believe
that technology-related jobs are uninteresting because workers sit in front of
computers all day, or unsafe because they could be easily outsourced.
"There's a perception that being a computer science major leads to a
job as a programmer and you sit in a cubicle where you type 12 hours a day and
have no interactions with other people," Block said.
Despite a forecast by the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicting that computer
and mathematical science jobs would grow at faster pace than any other
occupation through 2016, many still cite the dot-com bust as evidence that
technology is not a secure field to work in.
"In 2001 the dot-com bubble burst and everyone decided there were no
jobs in this field. This may have been the case for about a year but if you've
talked to anyone in the field in the last five years, they have been desperate
for people to hire. Maybe the female students have been more sensitive to this,"
Block said.
Yusupova noted that even if pure programming jobs are outsourced,
opportunities still remain within a company for people to bridge the
relationship between the outsourced IT vendors and the business side.
"These roles would probably be ideal for women who prefer to be in
communication-focused roles, if they know computer science and can communicate
to all parties involved," Nelly Yusupova, chief technology officer of Webgrrls International, a
networking organization.
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