Ladies: Want to Change the World? Get into Technology

Women and Technology: Careers for Changing the World

I have an embarrassing memory I would like to share from college.
In one of my classes, I sat next to a girl and we began chatting. I clearly remember asking what her major was, to which she responded “information systems”.
I stared at her blankly. “Like COMPUTERS and stuff?? Why would you want to do that? It sounds awfully boring, and what kind of job do you get majoring in Information Systems?”
I wish I could go back in time to not only smack myself for being so ignorant, but change my own major to Information or Computer Science. I couldn’t fathom why this seemingly normal girl wanted to work with technology. I wasn’t educated at all on the incredibly lucrative job market in the computer science space, and I was under the impression it was extremely boring, and to put it bluntly, “nerdy”.
And that’s exactly the problem we are facing today with women in technology. I honestly believe that not enough young women in high school or at earlier ages understand how important, interesting, and stable a career in technology is.

Women and Technology: Are We Finally at a Turning Point?

Recently I’ve seen several articles popping up, like “Google’s Quest To Get More Women in Tech” and “Tech Career Advice From Google’s Women” that address the issues of the lack of women at technology companies.
I think Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In has sparked a lot of industries questioning how many women they have at their company as employees or in positions of leadership. It is even more magnified in the technology sector, as it is one that has always seemed to lack female presence.
This might just be a turning point for women in technology. There are many more resources to aid in getting females interested in working with technology and computer science. If you’re interested in learning more about strategies to employ, I encourage you to read my co-worker’s post, here.
I wish I could offer an answer to this problem, but I think the best we can do is urge young women to get involved with coding, and computers, and technology and business at a young age. One of the articles on Google’s initiatives explains that young women are more interested in changing the world, and therefore stray away from the tech scene.
That’s amazing, I’m so glad my gender has a genuine interest in improving our world. Let me give you some advice though, if you really want to change the world, please study all about “computers and stuff”.