FAQs about Women and Girls in Technology
- 21% of girls say their parents encourage them to become an actress, while 10% of girls say their parents have encouraged them to think about an engineering career.
-Harris Interactive for the American Society for Quality - More than half (57%) of all girls say that girls don’t typically consider a career in STEM.
-Girl Scout Research Institute, 2012 - ‘It’s time to step up.’ At the Computer Electronics Show, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich pledged $300 million over five years to reach “full representation” of women and underrepresented minorities in the company’s U.S. workforce by 2020. “This is going to be difficult to achieve,” said Krzanich. In 2013, 76% of Intel employees were men and 57% were white. Wall Street Journal, 2015
- While 54% of AP test-takers in 2012 were female, only 19% of that group took the Computer Science AP exam. -College Board, 2012
- Computer science is a growing sector, and it’s important for women to be a part of that growth. Employment opportunities are projected to grow 15% from 2012 to 2022 (that’s faster than average). Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014
- More money, bigger gap. Among the 10 highest paying U.S. jobs, women earn 76 cents for every dollar that men earn. The Atlantic, 2014
- Google’s workforce is only 30% female. The company released this information back in May, along with its leadership stats: 79% male. And this isn’t just a Google problem — the same goes for Yahoo, which employs 37% women, Facebook, which is 31%, and LinkedIn, which employs 39%. Tech Republic, 2014
- 7% of venture capital funding goes to women-owned businesses. A recent study by researchers out of Harvard Business School showed that even with the same exact pitch, venture capitalists and the average person chose the man over the woman. Center for Venture Research at Harvard Business School, 2014
- 53% of scientists and engineers working in the social sciences are women, while only 13% working in engineering are women, and 26% working in computer and mathematical sciences are women. NSF, 2012
- Jobs in computer systems design and related services, a field dependent on high-level math and problem-solving skills, are projected to grow 45% between 2008 and 2018. The U.S. may be short as many as three million high-skilled workers by 2018. NSF, 2012
- Women are the lead adopters of technology. Women in western countries use the internet 17% more than their male counterparts, according to 2012 research by Intel’s Genevieve Bell. They use their mobile phones more, use location-based services more, are the fastest-growing and largest number of users of Skype and use most social media sites more often. They are also the majority of owners of tech devices. Intel, 2014
- Startups with women executives succeed more often. Dow Jones released a study in 2012 that looked at venture-backed companies from 1997 to 2011. Companies that went public or were acquired were called “successful.” Of those successful companies, the share of female executives was 7.1%, compared to 3.1% at unsuccessful firms. However, the study doesn’t delve into the reasons why they succeeded or why they didn’t, or even what management positions they were in that were the most successful. Dow Jones
- 20% of software developers are women. The Department of Labor states that 56% of business jobs are held by women and 36% of physician jobs are held by women. Conversely, according to one study on Silicon Valley startups, only 12% of engineers there are women. S. Department of Labor Statistics
Sources of data:
- National Math & Science Initiative
- http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-state-of-women-in-technology-15-data-points-you-should-know/
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/women
- http://www.esa.doc.gov/Reports/women-stem-gender-gap-innovation
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/stem_stratplan_2013.pdf