Women in Technology
...founder and president of Canada's branch of Wired Women says "There's no shortage of interest among women [to work in the technology field], we just don't have the resources to provide them the support they need." Wired Women is a well-known organization among women techies. In fact, it's one of the premier web sites reporting on women's business interests while avoiding the typical "girl" topics of childbirth, recipe swapping and menopause. The organization sponsors several fund-raising events and receives some financial backing from large tech corporations. Wired Women uses these funds to help single mothers and/or underprivileged women to learn computer operations in the hopes of helping them secure a better paying job. The web site supplies tons of contact information offering young girls the opportunity to adopt a "mentor" and receive the encouragement they need to proceed with their educational goals. Unfortunately, this is not enough. These women either never enter the computer industry or they don't stay long enough to make a difference. They need extensive training and that costs money. In hopes of gaining financial support, the National Organization for Women backed Wired Women in a request to Silicon Valley executives for funding of their program to educate women in computer use. They were turned down. Dr. Anita Borg, founder of the Institute for Women and Information Technology at Xerox Parc says, "We're trying to increase the impact of women on technology and to increase the positive impact of technology on the world's women." The Institute's report raises concerns over the possibilities for women to lag behind if they are not drawn in by the technology-related fields of study. The report also states "Two hundred years ago it was not necessary for women to be educated at all. We want to make sure that women don't become the new illiterates." Anne Eisenberg, a writer for the New York Times recently penned an article titled "Computer Science not Drawing Women." The article lists many statistics that have women and educators concerned. It seems that women only account for 17% of all the undergraduate computer science majors and the number is dropping. Overall, there are more students enrolled, but less of them are women. "Women are going to be left behind," says Dr. Tracy Camp who is a professor at Colorado School of Mines and chairperson of the Committee on Women in Computing for the Association for Computing Machinery. Dr. Camp contends that if women allow themselves to fall behind in computing know-how, they will collectively lose ground with regard to the future of the tech industry and perhaps never catch up. There is some concern that the probability of unequal pay and a semi-hostile atmosphere in the workplace towards women (in the IT Departments) is causing females stay away from computer science. Women are getting turned off to the industry in college and when they graduate (if they stay with this major) they find discrimination waiting for them in the business world. Recently, a few politicians and representatives from the National Urban League and other organizations got together to debate the unequal pay issue. Senator Tom Harkin, (D-Iowa), was the main spokesperson for the group in favor of eliminating the wage gap. Sen. Harkin released a report titled "Equal Pay Matters" against the wishes of the U.S. Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, who said "I am concerned that conversations about the status of women in the workplace will be misguided by this flawed study." The report shows statistics that prove beyond a doubt that the wage gap is real. Some groups and policy-makers question the existence of a wage gap when considering experience and total hours worked. At a press conference, Sen. Harkin was quoted saying, "Anyone in this day and age who doesn't think there is a wage gap based on occupational segregation has his or her head in the sand." Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.) along with Sen. Harkin approached the Bush administration asking for support on the Paycheck Fairness Act. Sen. Clinton urges, "This is not a women's issue. This is a family issue. The average American family loses at least $4,000 a year to unequal pay." The Paycheck Fairness Act calls for stronger laws prohibiting wage discrimination. In a recent commentary for ABC News, Dianne Lynch, a teacher and journalist, brings many new statistics to light in an article she wrote concerning the differences in pay between men and women. The article is titled "High-Tech Women Catching up to the Boys." While the article gives us a glimmer of hope that we may be seeing some fairness enter into the salary scale, it also tells us that it depends upon where you live. For example, this new study states that the average woman techie is making nearly .92 cents to every dollar that a man makes. Surprisingly, Silicon Valley women techies are reportedly making .97 cents on the dollar. That's a pretty encouraging statistic. However, if you live in Seattle it's only .89 cents. Apparently, the Northwest is not the best place for women in technology jobs. In fact, in other fields of employment in the Northwest, women reportedly make only .72 cents for every dollar that men make. And minority women have it the worst of all. They make only .64 cents on the man's dollar. That means women need to work about 25 percent longer in order to match the paycheck of a man in the same job. In continuing to read article after article on diversity in the workplace overall and in the high-tech fields in particular my ambivalence about the whole issue has strengthened. Several authors are reporting the "true and current" statistics, but the numbers vary depending on sources, experiences, and places of residence. Then, I came across...