Facebook
and LinkedIn want to boost dwindling numbers of women studying
engineering and computer science with a collaborative initiative
announced Friday that they hope will eventually fill thousands of
lucrative Silicon Valley jobs long dominated by men.
In
an exclusive joint interview with The Associated Press, Facebook Chief
Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and LinkedIn CEO Jeffrey Weiner said
they’re launching mentoring and support programs at colleges to get more
women involved in studying technology in general, but also as future
employees for their companies.
Fifteen
percent of Facebook’s employees working in tech jobs and 31 percent of
all employees are women, according to diversity figures the company
released last year. At LinkedIn, women comprise 17 percent of its tech
employees and 39 percent of employees overall. Most Silicon Valley
companies have similar demographics.
Telle
Whitney, president and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute, which is a
partner in the initiative, said diversity brings greater innovation in
technology.
“Think
about it,” Whitney said. “If everybody who creates a product looks the
same, you know the results won’t be nearly as interesting. We want for
the sake of our future to have women involved in all the projects that
will change our lives.”
Sandberg
launched an international conversation about the dearth of women in
positions of power with her 2011 book “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will
to Lead.” She has pressed to bring about change through her nonprofit
LeanIn.org, which will provide a platform for the support groups.
“A
lot of our consumers, at least half, sometimes more, are women. We
build a product that gives people a voice. We know we can’t build a
product for the world unless our teams reflect the diversity of the
people who use the product,” she said.
But
the talent pool is shrinking: The percentage of people enrolled in
undergraduate computer science programs who are women peaked at 35
percent in 1985 and is now down to about 17 percent.
Weiner said LinkedIn needs gender equity to better serve users.
“To
limit the perspective of the people building our product and services,
if that’s too narrow, it’s going to lead to suboptimal outcomes,” Weiner
said.
The
executives would not disclose how much of a financial commitment they
are making, but the investment is different in that it’s more focused on
peer groups and a mentoring process already established through Lean In
Circles. They hope it will go global, with groups at public and private
universities.
Stanford
University computer science student Lea Coligado, 21, said she and her
female colleagues could use the support and mentorship.
“There’s
so few of us, so we definitely stick together,” she said. “I think
there’s a stereotype. It’s understated and people don’t want to say it
out loud, but it’s there — the idea that women are just not very good at
computer science — and some use that to justify why our numbers are so
low. It’s flabbergasting.”
Coligado is not only good at programming, she loves it.
“Programming
teaches me a very distinct way of thinking,” she said. “If I have a
problem, I break it into chunks and conquer it.”
Paige
Rogalski, a senior at Santa Clara University studying computer
engineering, said she saw the already scarce number of girls in her
program leave in their first year.
“I think it was because of the intimidation factor,” she said. “Computer science has been a male-dominated field.”
She
said that while she’s been mentored and largely supported, she also
hears sexist comments and jokes, and was once told that her appearance
was a factor in why she was hired.
“It
still bothers me that as a woman I have to overcome prejudice and the
sexualized view of women in order to be taken completely seriously,” she
said. “On the other hand, this comment has pushed me to work harder and
have my effort and my work stand out and be what I’m known for.”
Posted by : Gizmeon
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