A recent study conducted by the National Academies confirmed what we mostly take as obvious: There are no biological or intellectual differences that explain why so few women are working in the fields of science and mathematics.
The study also unsurprisingly found a significant bias in academia--what it called "outmoded institutional structures"--that has contributed to a paltry representation of women in these disciplines.
It's been my experience that corporate environments are challenged as well: A common symptom is that the higher up in the engineering leadership hierarchy, the less the diversity.
All of this troubles me--and not just, or even principally, on the grounds of fairness and opportunity. It troubles me because our field is in serious need of greater diversity simply to remain competitive, let alone to further advance society.
Why? Because engineering is an art. A constructive art, yes, but still very much an expression of the life experiences that one brings to the drawing board. The quality of what engineers create, from the core approach to the problem being solved all the way to an artifact's usability, are all informed by judgment, sensibilities, passions and taste.
Women need the same attention for inspiration, guidance, mentorship and rewards as men, whether they are undergraduates or professional engineers.
Most people are surprised when I describe engineering as an art. The common perception is that technology is dispassionate and formulaic: Engineers (simply!) follow textbook procedures to go from a problem statement to a design, with little room for individual expression or interpretation. (And we engineers smirk or cringe at that description, as we think about the intensity at some recent review session or of some extended e-mail exchange on a subtle point of design.)
Here's the crux of the issue for me: We as engineers do indeed passionately argue for approach A versus B, and we are limited by the perspectives of those participating in the process. In what I call the "Nerd-Y Syndrome," when those participants are mostly nerdy guys, you get designs that are most appealing to, well, nerds with Y's.
That's a bad reflection of society and of the consumers with whom we must connect. We must connect because the booming growth opportunity in IT is continuing the broad consumerization of technology. Things like the Web and mobile communications have become essential, integral parts of many people's lives. What gets used and how it gets used has more to do with social utility, coolness or simply fashion.
So how can we possibly decide approach A versus B, or even imagine that there is a C, if we don't tap into a deep well of diverse people and diverse life experiences? How about we start by being far more inclusive with (more than) half the population: women.
Technologists, especially leaders, don't just materialize out of thin air. Women need the same attention for inspiration, guidance, mentorship and rewards as men, whether they are undergraduates or professional engineers. This is a long-term and systemic pipeline problem. It doesn't happen overnight.
At the academic level, thankfully, we've seen some progress. According to the National Academies study, today 20 percent of engineering students are women and more women than men are pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in life sciences.
It's a start, but it's vital that Sun Microsystems and other companies do our part to make sure we capitalize on this momentum.
In the end, society is influenced by a variety of motivations. Whether yours is social justice, personal experience or the old-fashioned profit motive, there is no doubt that being more inclusive in engineering will make the whole field richer, wealthier and more connected to society.
Consider this. When was the last technical conference you attended called a "celebration"?
My point precisely.
Biography Greg Papadopoulos is chief technology officer for Sun Microsystems.
I had a pal who as part of his graduate degree taught Economics at Penn State.
He was counseled if he gave "minorities" (meaning anyone but white guys) anything below a C, he'd fail. So in order to keep his GPA, which he did earn, he had to falsify records in order to get his degree.
In the name of diversity, there were students in his classroom who had no business being there. Not that with the proper prior education they wouldn't do well, but because someone before him had to satisfy a number to create "diversity", kids were there who would otherwise fail the class. And they did but they were handed a C. Now, white males who couldn't cut it did get failing grades.
I also work at a place that talks about diversity on its web site. To establish their satisfaction of diversity, they presented the numbers in their firm of each of the "big three minorities" meaning Asian, African American and Hispanic, followed by the other two, Women and Gays.
Meanwhile we have a huge Italian American population in our office and the managing partner tried to float a "no-Italian" edict in the office. And many of the Big 3 minorities were all for it, quoting one person, "we speak English here." Doesn't sound like pro-diversity to me. But I guess diversity is a grace for some and not for others. And those who receive that grace have no compunction about excluding others.
Diversity is meant that if someone earns a spot, he can't be denied it. Period. It doesn't mean plant a certain number of X,Y,Z in a forum, especially in Engineering where if we don't have qualified people doing the job, we are going to have bridges falling out of the sky.
Diversity is specious wholesomeness. We Americans will take credit anyway we can, which is what diversity is all about, whether we deserve it or not, whether we earn it or not.
This is a common liberal theme... Women and Men are interchangeable!
After all, if you believe this, you must also believe in Gay Marriage because surely there is no difference between marrying the opposite sex and the same sex.
There are no such things as gender roles, right? It doesn't matter if a child has 2 dads or a mom and a dad, right?
And, the physical differences? Is it just lack of motivation that women can't do as many push ups and pull ups at the gym? They are simply lazy? Or are their body's different? And of course, different bodies would never mean different mental abilities. Oh no...
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the grey area liberal mentality. Diversity is alway good, right? Having a bum work in IT who doesn't take showers would make your department more diverse, so it must be good!!! Women are oppressed by a conspiracy!!! Nevermind that they outnumber men in college!!! Nevermind that most say they instinctively don't like crunching numbers in a basement and would rather be involved in social work!!! ITS A CONSPIRACY!!!!
The term "Social Justice" has no meaning... it is simply a codeword that liberals use to identify themselves to other liberals.
Kind of a "wink" and a "nod" that if you go along with what the person is saying, they will be as liberal as possible without revealing their true intentions to the public at large.
We've seen this all before. Socialists are now in opposition. Their ideas of "Social Justice" like taking from some to give to others to create a "fair" world are dead. They cannot articulate these ideas in public without ridicule, so they lay waiting, using codewords and working in their media jobs.
Thank you for your insightful comments. What you say definitely matches my experience as a woman in the technology field. We need to encourage girls from a very early age and keep the encouragement going throughout their education to be successful with getting more women to go into and stay in technology. I believe the rewards would exceed the investment if we could get anyone to focus resources on this.
Tech more diverse in U.S. than in places Sun is offshoring work too
Greg Papadopoulos,
The U.S. IT workers is far more racially and sexually diverse than the IT workforces in India and China. But increasingly Sun and other companies are choosing to relocate to those undiverse locations.
Minorities comprise 22.3% of U.S. IT workers 30% higher than for all U.S. occupations.
Last year women comprise 32.4% of the IT workforce, or 1,448,000 workers. Of these skilled female IT workers, 92,000, or 6.4%, were unemployed. This was much higher than the rate of unemployment among male IT workers.
So is the solution to encourage more women to enter the profession, or is the problem to get companies like SUN to stop importing male H-1b workers, stop offshoring work to undiverse countries, and to start hiring the women (and males over 40) that have been displaced from the workforce?
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He was counseled if he gave "minorities" (meaning anyone but white guys) anything below a C, he'd fail. So in order to keep his GPA, which he did earn, he had to falsify records in order to get his degree.
In the name of diversity, there were students in his classroom who had no business being there. Not that with the proper prior education they wouldn't do well, but because someone before him had to satisfy a number to create "diversity", kids were there who would otherwise fail the class. And they did but they were handed a C. Now, white males who couldn't cut it did get failing grades.
I also work at a place that talks about diversity on its web site. To establish their satisfaction of diversity, they presented the numbers in their firm of each of the "big three minorities" meaning Asian, African American and Hispanic, followed by the other two, Women and Gays.
Meanwhile we have a huge Italian American population in our office and the managing partner tried to float a "no-Italian" edict in the office. And many of the Big 3 minorities were all for it, quoting one person, "we speak English here." Doesn't sound like pro-diversity to me. But I guess diversity is a grace for some and not for others. And those who receive that grace have no compunction about excluding others.
Diversity is meant that if someone earns a spot, he can't be denied it. Period. It doesn't mean plant a certain number of X,Y,Z in a forum, especially in Engineering where if we don't have qualified people doing the job, we are going to have bridges falling out of the sky.
Diversity is specious wholesomeness. We Americans will take credit anyway we can, which is what diversity is all about, whether we deserve it or not, whether we earn it or not.
After all, if you believe this, you must also believe in Gay Marriage because surely there is no difference between marrying the opposite sex and the same sex.
There are no such things as gender roles, right? It doesn't matter if a child has 2 dads or a mom and a dad, right?
And, the physical differences? Is it just lack of motivation that women can't do as many push ups and pull ups at the gym? They are simply lazy? Or are their body's different? And of course, different bodies would never mean different mental abilities. Oh no...
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the grey area liberal mentality. Diversity is alway good, right? Having a bum work in IT who doesn't take showers would make your department more diverse, so it must be good!!! Women are oppressed by a conspiracy!!! Nevermind that they outnumber men in college!!! Nevermind that most say they instinctively don't like crunching numbers in a basement and would rather be involved in social work!!! ITS A CONSPIRACY!!!!
Kind of a "wink" and a "nod" that if you go along with what the person is saying, they will be as liberal as possible without revealing their true intentions to the public at large.
We've seen this all before. Socialists are now in opposition. Their ideas of "Social Justice" like taking from some to give to others to create a "fair" world are dead. They cannot articulate these ideas in public without ridicule, so they lay waiting, using codewords and working in their media jobs.
The U.S. IT workers is far more racially and sexually diverse than the IT workforces in India and China. But increasingly Sun and other companies are choosing to relocate to those undiverse locations.
Minorities comprise 22.3% of U.S. IT workers 30% higher than for all U.S. occupations.
Last year women comprise 32.4% of the IT workforce, or 1,448,000 workers. Of these skilled female IT workers, 92,000, or 6.4%, were unemployed. This was much higher than the rate of unemployment among male IT workers.
So is the solution to encourage more women to enter the profession, or is the problem to get companies like SUN to stop importing male H-1b workers, stop offshoring work to undiverse countries, and to start hiring the women (and males over 40) that have been displaced from the workforce?
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