I'm really sure a fair few women will resent being given "unfair" advantages. I've definitely witnessed this in regards to Google giving some free conference passes to a number of women.
Maybe the education system just needs to interest females before they get the chance to realise it's "uncool".
The only dev team I've been in thus far has included a woman, in a workplace which I consider a meritocracy. I've yet to work in a team unsuited to women.
I don't think having a school for women necessarily gives an unfair advantage. I'm not even sure it's an 'advantage' at all in a male-dominated discipline, especially given the degree to which engineering is male-dominated.
You're right that girls don't think tech is cool. I've heard this anecdotally from high school teachers and friends running Girls in Tech programs. I'm not sure I know how to tackle that specifically.
One problem might be the phenomenon that occurs when you walk into a room full of people who look nothing like you. As a minority (I know I look Chinese, but I'm a Samoan-born Filipino), I feel this a little bit all the time. But when I walked into a local Women Who Code event to meet someone, it was downright alarming. After experiencing that, I can't blame women for not wanting to participate in tech at all.
Regarding your last statement, I want to point out that I've never worked with a woman who was a bad engineer, and seemingly, neither has anyone else. Conspicuously absent are the unremarkable, or even poorly performing female engineers, while their male counterparts are everywhere. One expects a more normal distribution, and I think this indicates some systemic problem, but it's not one I know how to solve without more data. Right now, I think the best we can do is address the symptom and add more women into the tech pool directly.
Comments
I'm really sure a fair few women will resent being given "unfair" advantages. I've definitely witnessed this in regards to Google giving some free conference passes to a number of women.
Maybe the education system just needs to interest females before they get the chance to realise it's "uncool".
The only dev team I've been in thus far has included a woman, in a workplace which I consider a meritocracy. I've yet to work in a team unsuited to women.
I don't think having a school for women necessarily gives an unfair advantage. I'm not even sure it's an 'advantage' at all in a male-dominated discipline, especially given the degree to which engineering is male-dominated.
You're right that girls don't think tech is cool. I've heard this anecdotally from high school teachers and friends running Girls in Tech programs. I'm not sure I know how to tackle that specifically.
One problem might be the phenomenon that occurs when you walk into a room full of people who look nothing like you. As a minority (I know I look Chinese, but I'm a Samoan-born Filipino), I feel this a little bit all the time. But when I walked into a local Women Who Code event to meet someone, it was downright alarming. After experiencing that, I can't blame women for not wanting to participate in tech at all.
Regarding your last statement, I want to point out that I've never worked with a woman who was a bad engineer, and seemingly, neither has anyone else. Conspicuously absent are the unremarkable, or even poorly performing female engineers, while their male counterparts are everywhere. One expects a more normal distribution, and I think this indicates some systemic problem, but it's not one I know how to solve without more data. Right now, I think the best we can do is address the symptom and add more women into the tech pool directly.