Facebook, LinkedIn team up to encourage more women in tech jobs
A large gender disparity has existed in computer science since the field was first created, but over the last few years, that disparity has been growing rather than shrinking. In 1985, 35 percent of computer science majors were women. Today, they make up only 18 percent.
This trend has Facebook Inc. COO Sheryl Sandberg worried about the future of women in technology, and she wrote a best-selling book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, exploring the causes and solutions to the lack of women entering STEM fields. Following the success of her book, Sandberg is spearheading a global chapter of Lean In Circles, an outreach program to encourage young women to pursue STEM degrees and careers in technology.
Lean In Circles is a joint effort between Facebook, LinkedIn Corp., the Anita Borg Institute, and Sanderbg’s Lean In organization.
“More Davids than women”
“The solution to getting more women into CS is… getting more women into CS,” Sandberg wrote on Facebook. “This is because stereotypes are self-reinforcing; computer science and engineering classes ‘feel male’ because they are dominated by men. As one CS student told me, ‘There are more Davids than women in my department.'”
According to Sandberg, girls do not see many women in STEM careers, so they are less likely to pursue those degrees, so there a fewer women in STEM careers to serve as examples, and on and on.
Sandberg notes that one of the primary reasons many girls do not consider pursuing careers in STEM fields is a lack of encouragement and support from a young age.
Lean In Circles creates a supportive community for women in tech by offering advice and solidarity to both veterans of the field and young women just entering college. Women can go to Lean In Circles to talk to people about dealing with issues such as sexual harassment, wage disparity, and striving for leadership positions in a male-dominated field.
“For me, this isn’t just a professional matter, it’s a personal one as well,” wrote LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. “Growing up, my dad would always tell me I could do anything I set my mind to. I tell the same thing to my two young daughters. I’d like them to grow up in a world where those words ring as true for them as they did for me.”
Photo by World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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