Women and Technology

In the New York Times article “Women are Seen Bridging Gap in Science Opportunities”, studies have shown that girls are now performing as well as boys in math and science but are still under represented in industry. Although these statistics are troubling it is promising to see that progress is being made. I think that this is a direct correlation to different programs that are being offered to girls in an effort to get them more interested in fields such as physics and engineering.

In my tech ed class I have noticed a increase in female students. I think that programs such as the ones offered by the University of North Dakota and also by NASA have helped. These programs are offered only to girls in an effort to put them in an environment that they feel more comfortable. Once there, they focus of technology/engineering topics that are fun and encourage them to pursue them more at their respective schools. These programs have brought a few more girls into my classes. The counselors at my school have also been highly recommending technology classes to girls which have also increased numbers. It is my understanding that tech ed programs around the state are making efforts to get more girls in their classes as well.

In the grand scheme of things girls are progressing at a rapid rate in the field of technology. It wasn’t that long ago (relatively speaking) when all girls took home economics and all boys took shop. The stereotype of girls excelling in English and boys excelling at math are over. As the study shows the math gap between boys and girls is effectively closed. This is a somewhat new occurrence and now the next step is to see girls apply this knowledge to various technology fields. Just as it took several years to get girl’s performance up the level of boy’s, it will take several years to see equality in the work place. We definitely should not be satisfied with the employment level that girls are at now but we should get some satisfaction out of the sense that improvements are being made. As a teacher that makes conscious efforts to make my class “girl friendly” I know that I feel pride in seeing improvement.

As a community we need to make sure that we don’t get hurt patting ourselves on the back too hard though. All of this will be for naught if we don’t continue to encourage girls to actively pursue these fields. In the previously mentioned New York Times article, the number one factor for hiring women for technology related jobs was having women on the hiring board. This doesn’t speak well for us men but it does mean that the growth for hiring women could improve exponentially. Simply put, the more women hired now the more women will be hired in the future.