Citation, Please
Another day, another flood of defensive, ill-informed commentary on the Internet about women in technology. (I’m thinking particularly of some of the responses to Frances Berriman’s post about Matt Andrews’ pointing out that all 22 speakers at the upcoming Edge conference are male, but there’s lots more floating around.) So: the claim that “most women just don’t like tech” was analyzed ten years ago in Margolis and Fisher’s landmark Unlocking the Clubhouse. The authors (both then at Carnegie-Mellon) found that the “boy’s club” atmosphere of tech does discourage women (and others) from taking part. When it was addressed, female enrolment and graduation grew from approximately 12-15% to over 35% in just a few years. It’s brief (less than 200 pages), readable, and most importantly, it’s based on data rather than anecdote. If the people who keep saying “problem? what problem?” have better data to back up their claims—or any data at all—could they please cite it?
Ugh. Hear, hear. A good gender studies course should be required for these people.
I mostly agree with you, but what happened at CMU to get those gains was a lot more complex than just addressing the “boy’s club” atmosphere.
Thanks for including the link to that research. I’d read it before, but forgot to include it. I didn’t think I’d have to remind people that this is a real issue.
Unfortunately, I think the first couple of more offensive comments came from people who simply a) hadn’t actually read my post and b) are spoilt, well-paid, young men who’ve never had to even consider that not everyone’s experiences are like theirs (thanks HackerNews!). Sad.
I hear the argument “women just don’t like tech” a LOT. When I feel like throwing myself into the fray, I try to counter with “OK, WHY do women not like tech?” Unsurprisingly, I have yet to hear any even half-way reasonable answers to that question, if I get answered at all. All the men who tout it seem perfectly happy with it as a conclusion, when it should really be a starting point.