Where did this all start?
Let’s start with a little history lesson.
We shall begin with the graph below:
As you can see, the red line indicating the percentage of of women who majored in computer science has drastically decreased since 1985. Although the statistics show data until about 2012, this article by jaxenter indicates that recent research found that the percentage of women who major in computer science now is only 16.5%!
Female computer programmers made up 40% of jobs in programming, but that number slowly decreased as time went on. Women occupied back-end jobs, mostly working in software development. Men, on the other hand, worked on hardware, and represented the “face” of programming. As computers became more popular, many women lost their jobs because of the abundance and availability of technology, and the fact that many people were learning computing skills from home.
What happened in the 1980s?
As personalized computers gained popularity in the 1980s for general use, computers were being brought home. As expected, the original computers that were created were very limited in abilities and scope – it had few functions, but consumers were delightfully curious about them all the same. Since marketing efforts were limited, original marketing tactics were targeted towards boys and men. The games that were available on PC at the time were shooter games, designed for male consumption. Even in the 80s, males were more likely to purchase computers than females. Women did not represent the target market, and were excluded from advertisements and their curiosity ignored.
As time went on, hundreds of thousands of men became more familiar with computers in general because of these early decisions made by computing companies.
Comparing genders in STEM and non-STEM fields in 2016, we are given the data below:
37% of STEM graduates were female.
Women are more likely to pursue science-oriented STEM degrees rather than computer science, engineering, or math.
Female workers in STEM tend to be lower paid.
Women now represent 47% of the workforce, as compared to 38% in the 1970s, yet the percentage of women in computer science-relating careers have steadily decreased since the 1980s. In the last fifteen years alone, the percentage of women working in these professions have dropped from 35% to 25%.
Now that we’ve faced the facts, let us initiate the change and put our effort into reversing the effect history, marketing, and stereotypes have created.
Everyone Can Play 