IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 13

these efforts to re-engage women
in the British computing workforce
failed by the end of the 1980's and
never recovered. This loss of what
once was an enormous female Civil
Service computing workforce finally
succumbed to decades of intentional discrimination.
How is this story relevant today?
Hicks rightly notes that the number
of college-aged women pursuing a
career in computing has plummeted
in the last 15 years in the U.S. [4].
But the problems start long before
women get to college. By the time
U.S. children are in second grade,
research shows that they all know
math is for boys and reading is for
girls. By the time children reach high
school, boys outnumber girls a stunning four-to-one among Advanced
Placement or AP Computer Science
test takers. In 2014 three U.S. states
(Mississippi, Montana, and Wyoming) had zero girls take (not pass,
just take) the AP Computer Science
exam. Zero [4]. Efforts to attract girls
to computing starting in elementary
school in the U.S. are numerous to
be sure, from coding organizations
girls like Girls Who Code and Black
Girls Code to recognition efforts
such as NCWIT Aspiration Awards
programs to K12 robot competitions like FIRST and Vex Robotics.
It will be some time before we can
truly assess the long-term impact
of such efforts. Programs to recruit
and retain college women in computing-related majors have been
around for decades, as well. There
are some success stories at institutions such as Harvey Mudd College, where more than half of the
computer science graduates in 2016
were women [5], but these stories
are the exception, not the rule. Computer science programs in college
rank a mong the lowest in terms

june 2018

of percentage of women majors,
site direction of where we need to go,
often hovering not far above the
driving women away from computsingle digits. Like postwar Britain,
ing fields at the very time we desperthe computing workforce needs
ately need to be drawing throngs of
in the U.S. are huge and
growing rapidly, with an
estimated 1 million more
computing jobs than qualified applicants by 2020 [6].
In Britain's effort to rebrand
Combine all of this with the
fact that women now outcomputing as "high value
number men in college twomen's work" they booted out
to-one [7], and it's not hard
to see that U.S. is already
their qualified and experienced
riding a tsunami fueled by
the shortage of qualified
workforce of women and tried to
computing workers. It's just
replace them with inexperienced
that the bulk of the water
hasn't obliterated the shoreand largely uninterested men.
line ... yet. Given that the
bachelor's degree college
graduates of 2020 arrived
on U.S. college campuses in fall of
women toward careers in computing
2016, we will have to increasingly
with open arms.
rely on alternate training, such as
Reviewer Information
coding camps, two-year programs,
Jenna Carpenter is Founding Dean
retraining of older workers and, yes,
and Professor of Engineering at
successfully cracking our own genCampbell University, 143 Main St,
dered computing norms in the U.S.,
Buies Creek , NC 27506. E m a i l :
to survive. The country with the best
carpenter@campbell.edu.
trained and largest computing workforce will likely rule the world in the
not-too-distant future. We daily see
References
(1) L. Erickson, Top Secret Rosies: The
increasing threats and damage by
Female "Computers" of WII. PBS [Film], 2010.
hackers on critical industries and
(2) M. Tyldum, The Imitation Game. The
infrastructure dotting the daily news.
Weinstein Company [Film], 2014.
(3) M. Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The
As a female professional who works
American Dream and the Untold Story
hard to attract and retain women in
of the Black Women Who Helped Win the
STEM careers, I certainly hope that
Space Race. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2016.
we can pull it out in the end. But I am
(4) "The current state of women in computer
afraid that it is already too late and
science," computerscience.org; http://www
Hicks' warning will simply go unheed.computerscience.org/resources/women-incomputer-science/, accessed July 9, 2017.
ed. Because, like postwar Britain, our
(5) M. O'Sullivan, "Women thriving in computer
cultural gender norms about who
science at California college," Silicon Valley &
can and wants to do computing in
Technology, Voice of America, Feb. 5, 2017.
(6) J. Swartz, "Businesses say they just
the U.S. have actually grown more
can't find the right tech workers," USA
restrictive over the decades (just look
Today, May 9, 2017.
back at those AP Computer Science
(7) M. Whaley, Men saying "no thanks" to
college," Denver Post, June 5, 2017.
test takers!), hurling us in the oppo-

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