Take-Away

Journal
By: Patty Popp
Section 1: Objectives for the Class
 Obtain a better understanding of the common assumptions people make and
how to effectively reframe those assumptions
 Absorb invaluable knowledge from fascinating guest speakers and learn about
the breadth of opportunities available in the IT field
 Recognize why having increased diversity in technical fields is important for
innovation and technological growth
 Understand why women continue to be a minority group in technical fields and
start developing hypotheses for how we can combat this phenomenon

As a young woman passionate about computer science, I frequently have found

myself in the minority – often being one of the only females in my STEM classes. I hope
that, over the course of this quarter, I can start pinpointing clear ways in which we can
encourage more women to join and stay in the field. I also wish to combat some of the
unconscious biases and stereotypes against women in the industry. I frequently am met
with comments about how I would not have gotten a particular internship if the
company’s first priority was not diversity. This is always a difficult comment to dismiss
because I begin to doubt my own abilities and have a strong feeling of imposter
syndrome, as a result. And finally, I am excited to hear stories and absorb knowledge
firsthand from women across a broad range of industries and roles, and be inspired in
the process.

Section 2 – IT Industry and Professional Roles

The IT Industry and Professional Roles section of the course was very interesting
as we were able to learn about a variety of industries: from travel to health, food,
education, sports, entertainment, beauty, energy, pharmaceutical, urban development,
etc., and obviously focusing primarily on the IT industry. We also took the time to
explore our own strengths/passions and weakness/dislikes which was a good
introspective exercise. We analyzed different roles in the industry and the advantages
and disadvantages of varied organization sizes.

 By 2018, there will be 1.4 million open technology jobs – only 29% will be filled by
women
 Interventions to encourage girls to pursue a computer science education could
triple the number of women in computing to 3.9 million (39% share of technology
jobs – up from 24%)
  Most companies opt for a “shrink it and pink it” strategy to make products more
“appealing” to women
 Data is the blood of a company
 The tech field is essentially recession-proof
 Quit rate for women is almost twice as high than that of men
 Data alchemy: data  information  knowledge  wisdom
 The IT field is lucrative and there is a broad spectrum of jobs underneath its
umbrella
 “I reserve the right to wake up smarter tomorrow than I did today.” – former
Microsoft CFO
 Even if you’re part of the target market, don’t think that everyone in the target
market is exactly like you
 People who suffer from a problem are uniquely equipped to solve it
 90% of venture capitalist partners are male
 It’s important for people to run the numbers before taking the risk of starting a
new business

Section 3 – Gender and Roles

In the Gender and Roles section of this class, we looked into the difference
between gender and sex, and the common stereotypes that surround the labels of
“male” and “female”. It was interesting to see the juxtaposition between words like
“protector”, “strong”, “stoic” (for men) to words like “dainty”, “weak”, and “emotional”
(for women). I also found it a good exercise to look over those common stereotypes and
see which of those I embody and which I do not.

 Stop calling women “girls” – it’s demeaning and implies inferiority to men
 “Be a man” has made boys uncomfortable with addressing their feelings and has
made them feel like they have to wear a mask to hide their true self
 The way adults treat young children has a strong impact on the stereotypes that
permeate our society
 Adults subconsciously treat little boys differently than little girls
 Diversity is being invited to the party – inclusion is being asked to dance
 The future belongs to the few of us willing to get our hands dirty
 As soon as men become fathers, they are viewed as the breadwinners, but as soon
as women become mothers, they are viewed as the designated caregivers
 Comments like “You should already know that” can be extremely harmful in an
introductory class
 Early exposure is key to getting young girls interested in STEM
 Women do more unpaid work than men
  Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women
apply only if they meet 100% of them.
 Men are often hired or promoted based on their potential, women for their
experience and track record

Section 4 – History of Women in Tech

In the History of Women in Tech section of the course, we had gotten a thorough
summary of the involvement of women in technology over the years – starting with Ada
Lovelace, to Grace Hopper, to the unsung heroes of the first programmable computer,
to the stories of three women who truly revolutionized the tech space. In addition, in
lab, my fellow classmates gave a presentation about a female role model involved in
tech (ranging from Sheryl Sandberg to Amy Hood to various other powerful female
executives from around the globe). This portion of the class was very inspiring, but at
the same time, a little bit disheartening that these strong women were not covered
more in the modern-day media.

 After WWII, there was a shift towards professionalization of the tech field,
resulting in women being pushed out
 Personal computers were marketed towards men
 The number of women involved in the computing field has actually gone down
since the 20th century
 Young children grow up learning about Edison, Franklin, and Darwin, but what
about Lovelace, Curie, and Hopper?
  The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a yearly convention for
women in the field of Computer Science and Technology
 The celebration is named after Hopper to honor her work and influence in the
field of computing, and her push for more women to enter and stay in the tech
field
 Grace Hopper developed the first compiler-related tool and created the first
English-like programming language (COBOL)
 While working on Mark II in a research lab, Hopper and her associates discovered
a moth was stuck in a relay, thus impeding the operation – an instance of literal
debugging

“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships

are built for.” – Grace Hopper

Section 5 – Importance of Diversity to Innovation

 Without diversity you lack the opportunity to hear perspectives from people of
unique backgrounds, cultures, life experiences, etc. and this ultimately harms one’s
ability to find new and effective ways to problem-solve.
 There is compelling evidence that shows that diversity unlocks innovation and
drives market growth
 Building a homogenous workforce isn’t the best way to innovate and problem
solve for the increasingly diverse customers that a company serves
 By stressing the importance of embodying and embracing the power of
differences, diverse companies can consistently out-innovate and out-perform
others in unique and novel ways.
 When leaders value differences, creative employees are more likely to propose
compelling ideas and can more effectively persuade those in charge to allocate
resources to develop those ideas.
 Without diverse leadership, women, people of color, and LGBTQ people are 20-
25% less likely than straight white men to win endorsement for their ideas.
 Lack of diversity costs companies crucial market opportunities, because inherently
diverse contributors understand the unmet needs in under-leveraged markets in a
way that homogeneous teams cannot.
 Leaders who give diverse voices equal airtime are nearly twice as likely as others
to unleash value-driving insights
 Employees in a “speak-up” culture are 3.5 times as likely to contribute their full-
innovative potential
 By disrupting conformity, diversity prompts people to scrutinize facts, think more
deeply, and develop their own opinions
 Mistakes spread as participants seemingly put undue trust in others’ answers,
mindlessly imitating them since everyone has been trained in the same mold and
thinks in almost identical ways. If everyone thinks in the same way, everyone will
get stuck in the same place, whereas in a diverse environment, people get stuck in
different places and tend to prompt better critical thinking.
 Young girls are going to be users of technology and if they are not incorporated
in building it, it’s not going to serve their needs
 Having a diverse and inclusive workforce will yield better and more unique
products and solutions – by encouraging girls to pursue science and technology,
the world doubles its potential to solve problems
 Companies with women in executive leadership positions see substantially better
profitability
 Women are better decision-makers than men when put under stress
Section 6 – Why do so few women pursue/stay in tech?
 Women made up just 26% of computing professionals in 2013, a substantially
smaller portion than 30 years ago and about the same percentage as in 1960. In
engineering, women are even less well represented, making up just 12% of
working engineers in 2013.
 Women fill nearly half of all jobs in the U.S. economy but less than 25 percent of
all STEM jobs.
 Despite early similarities between girls and boys in math and science achievement,
by high school, boys are more likely than girls to take the standardized exams
most closely associated with the fields of engineering and computing
 Among first-year college students, women are much less likely than men to say
that they intend to major in engineering or computing.
 Women hold only 13% of engineering jobs at tech companies, and only 5% of
tech startups are owned by women.
 According to the National Center for Education Statistics, seven B.S. degrees are
granted to women for every 10 granted to men; three M.S. degrees granted to
women for every five granted to men; one Ph.D. degree granted to a woman for
every two granted to men.
 There are more CEOs of large U.S. companies who are named David (4.5%) than
there are CEOs who are women (4.1%) — and David isn’t even the most common
first name among CEOs.
 Women who work at companies that have more females in management positions
report higher levels of job satisfaction
 Life Stage Why Girls / Women Leave
 By 1st grade, children are
already embracing the
stereotype that boys are
better than girls at robotics
and programming.
 Boys are encouraged to
play computer games and
think about how things
work, while girls get toy
makeup and fashion sets
 Unconscious biases can
prompt parents, teachers,
and guidance counselors
to treat members of
opposite sexes differently
 Discouraged by peers,
Elementary School teachers, parents, etc.
 Tendency to follow people
who are “like you”
 Less access to technology
classes
 Only girl in the group can
be difficult to deal with
 Lack of mentors
 Entertainment industry and
media perpetuate biases
 Don’t hear enough about
big female role models
Recommendations / Solutions
 The feeling of working as a
group on STEM assignments
caused 4-year-old children to
work longer on tasks, enjoy
them more, feel like they’d
done a better job and actually
do better work.
 More neutral color schemes for
toys
 For hands-on activities, have
stations that everyone must
visit (i.e. boys and girls, alike,
must paint and build a Lego
house)
 More unisex toys
 More inspiring fairy tales (no
longer perpetuating idea of
damsel in distress, but instead
promoting strong women in
STEM)
 Light-up dress workshops (take
something girls already like
and make them build it)
 Have a service that provides
gender neutral goodie bags for
children’s birthday parties
 Mandatory typing classes
 Have guest role models come
in and speak to the kids
  Required robotics project in
 Girls who more strongly
STEM classes w/ assigned
associate math with boys
groups to expose you to a new
are less likely to perceive
field
themselves as being skilled
 Make more inclusive posters
at math and less likely to
that highlight an equal number
spend time engaging with
of positive male and female
math concepts
role models
 “Intelligent, geeky, socially
 Have guest speakers come in
inept, and male” are the
and inspire students to pursue
characteristics commonly
STEM
associated with computer
 Make CS a mandatory
scientists.
graduation requirement
 Myth that IT is dominated
 Make an effort to highlight the
by men in dark rooms who
diverse set of roles and
spend all day coding
opportunities in the tech field
 Start to worry about what
 Design-your-own-video-game
others perceive of you
workshop
 Not enough positive
 Get more girls involved with
Middle School & encouragement
programs like Girls Who Code
High School  Comments by influential
 Debunk the myth that being a
people in your life can
nerd is not cool
affect how you view your
potential
 Not a lot of accessible tech
classes
 Only girl – makes you feel
uncomfortable and alone
 Social pressure to not be
geeky
 Failure to showcase
influential female role
models
 Classes + media don’t do a
good job of portraying
diversity in STEM
 Lack of mentors/teachers
 Subtle messages in
posters/books/room feel
 Peer pressure

 The greater the emphasis
on the belief that
intelligence is innate and
fixed, the fewer female
Ph.D.’s there were, and the
bigger the gender gap.
 Female students tend to
exhibit lower math self-
confidence as compared to
males with the same
abilities.
 Perception of the culture as
geeky or hostile
 Lack of mentors and
support networks
 No sense of belonging
 Inappropriate
behavior/lack of support
College towards women
 Have to get serious about
your future – what will
industry be like?
 Introductory courses
assume baseline
knowledge (which is
demoralizing, not
empowering)
 By highlighting the broad
applications and social
relevance of computer science
schools could improve the
experience for all students and
raise the number of women in
the major.
 Research experiences have a
notable effect on encouraging
women to pursue computer
science.
 Students benefit from working
together.
 Required class for women to
instill a sense of confidence
and empowerment
 Required class for men to
understand discrimination
against women and the
narrowed perspective that
comes with privilege
 Free sponsorship to attend the
Grace Hopper Celebration
 Mentorship program where
young freshman are paired
with seniors who are about to
graduate with a STEM degree
 More clubs for Women in STEM

 Women are better rule-
followers therefore making
them more likely to adhere
to the guidelines about
“who should apply”
 The jobs out there fail to
satisfy most women’s
desires to be socially
responsible engineers
 Job ads that contain words
such as “determined”,
“assertive”, “aggressive”,
and “analytical” are less
appealing to women
because such words are
linked with male
stereotypes
 Everything about the
Early Career
previous way of
interviewing people is very
patriarchal and based on
power dynamics
 Feel more isolated
 Confident women are seen
as bossy and kind women
are seen as weak
 Lack of accessible mentors
 Tasked with office
housework
 Sexual harassment
 Male managers are more
supportive of men on their
team
 Imposter syndrome
 Failures stay with women
for a lot longer
 Create job descriptions that
accurately reflect the role (to
combat the belief that women
must satisfy 100% of the job
requirements in order to apply)
 Invest in inclusive hiring tools
 Acknowledge that diverse
experiences create a diverse
workforce
 Avoid using gendered-words
like “aggressive” or “analytical”
in job descriptions
 Change interviewing practices
to be more inclusive and team-
based (find good work
colleagues, not good
Whiteboarders)
 Put policies and cultures in
place that support work-life
balance
 Allow for more opportunities to
network
 Omit signs of gender on
resumes
 Set all women up with a more
senior female mentor
 Call men out when they say
something wrong or interrupt a
woman in a meeting
 Host monthly or yearly “How to
Combat Imposter Syndrome”
workshops
 Bias-training in the workplace
 Frame engineering as a job that
is targeted more towards
helping people (highlight the
“greater purpose”)
  Mandatory maternity and
 Women grapple with
paternity leave
disproportionate social
 Make sure credit is given where
pressure to care for
credit is due
children and older
 Call people out on their
relatives, often leading
unconscious biases
them to pursue less
 Divide up office housework
demanding (and lower
more evenly across genders
paying) positions
 Hand out awards to commend
 Struggle to balance intense
women for their contributions
work-schedule with all of
to the company
the outside-of-office work
 Sponsor women to give talks at
 Lack of mentors, sponsors,
the Grace Hopper Celebration
or road map
for Women in Computing
 Whatever women do, they
 Acknowledge and reward
must do twice as well as
contributions
men to be thought half as
 Allow for free expression of
good
thoughts and values
 Because 95% of CEOs are
Mid-Career / white men, the status quo
Leadership bias can lead board
members to prefer to hire
more white men for
leadership roles.
 Actions men employ to
demonstrate leadership
can be viewed as
"aggressive"/"bossy" when
conducted by women.
 Don’t get acknowledged or
recognized for their work
 Fewer opportunities and
less management support
 Much harder to gain
credibility
 Women’s mistakes are
remembered much longer
than their
accomplishments
  Establish more female-based
 Most of venture capitalists
venture capitalist firms or
are men – so most money
crowdfunding sites that can
Entrepreneurship goes to men
allow female-run companies to
get the exposure that they
deserve

Section 7 – Sexual Harassment & Gender Discrimination

 Researchers found that code from women (in the form of pull requests) is
accepted at a higher rate, 78.6%. For men, it's 74.6%. However, this is only holds
true when profiles of users are stripped of their gender.
 When female coders can be identified as women, their acceptance rate plummets
and their contributions are accepted at a lower rate than men.
 Employers are more likely to hire under-qualified men over women – 32% for men
and 14% for women
 The gamer world is very hostile towards women – discrediting them or over-
sexualizing them
 Women are not represented equally in video games and they are commonly
objectified in games targeted towards younger audience
Section 8 – Guest Speakers

Martha Bejar

- Live in truth
- Live in the moment – the decision with what you are
going to do for the rest of your life starts now
- Take pride in the decisions you’ve made
- Embrace being in the trenches and follow your heart
- Live in the thick of life
- Build your network

Go-getter. Fierce. Charismatic. Tenacious. Strong-willed. Resourceful.

Jessica Turner

- You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can

only connect them looking backwards
- Find a champion for yourself that will fight for you
- The best way to predict the future is to create it
- 70% of people suffer from Imposter Syndrome
- Review what you’ve accomplished recently
- Keep a file of people saying nice things to you
- Being wrong doesn’t make you a fake

Hard-working. Bold. Courageous. Inspirational. Passionate. Optimistic.

Vidya Srinivasan

- Be multi-dimensional
- Take the first step
- Ask, don’t assume
- Confidence is a muscle
- Build your tribe
- You are your own leader
- Defy stereotypes
- Your potential is one thing – what you do with it is quite
another

Multi-dimensional. Fighter. Mom. Outspoken. Assertive. Leader. Strong.

Barbara Carson Hamer

- Make presentations concise and always end with a “So what?”

- Communication and basic computer skills is key in any field
- Make data work in your favor
- Be a lifelong learner
- Women have to be so determined that it’s almost obnoxious
- Always be willing to learn and grow
- Be the best or be a good collaborator

Unstoppable. Trail blazer. Wise. Curious. Persistent. Unafraid. Original.

Candace Faber

- Women have to worry about what they wear, how they

talk, etc., instead of what they have to say
- Keep showing up – insist on being taken seriously
- Don’t let anyone shame you out of loving what you love.
- Don’t be afraid to tackle the technical stuff.
- Constantly expand your toolkit.
- Don’t internalize it and don’t stand for it.
- Support each other – connect, connect, connect.

Honest. Courageous. Diplomatic. Empowering. Relentless. Upfront.

Inspiring. Encouraging. Motivational. Empowering. Powerful.

Section 9 – Deep Dive
For my deep dive, I ended up reading a study about how males underestimate
academic performance of their female peers in undergraduate biology classrooms. The
results of the study revealed that women who start college in one of the natural or
physical sciences leave in greater proportions than their male peers. Males tend to over-
nominate their male peers relative to their performance (with an overestimation of male
grades by 0.57 points on a 4.0 scale) indicating a strong male bias when assessing their
classmates. Females, in contrast, nominated equitably based on student performance
rather than gender. This favoring of males could influence student self-confidence, and
thus persistence in this STEM discipline. Self-confidence is found to be heavily
influenced by social interactions, particularly for women in male-dominated fields.

The sad truth is that male and female faculty members behave in ways that subtly
favor males in STEM disciplines by spending more time mentoring males, responding to
emails from males more often, and calling more often on males in class. These subtle,
yet consistent biases appear to cause at least some female STEM students to experience
a lower sense of belonging or confidence in their discipline, resulting in an increased
tendency to leave science.

The underrepresentation of women in STEM is a complex and daunting problem.

While there is strong evidence that precollege factors influence a student’s initial
decision to major in a STEM field, the causes of attrition after students initially declare a
STEM major are less commonly explored. Professional confidence is influenced by many
inputs, but one of the major ones, especially for women in STEM fields, is receiving
verbal messages and encouragement from individuals with influence, such as teachers
and peers. As seen in this study, the coalescence of subtle messages about their STEM
abilities from both faculty and peers may undermine the self-confidence females have
to persist in STEM fields beyond their undergraduate education. Instructors may be able
to interrupt this process by equalizing the rate at which students of all genders speak up
in class, closing the achievement gaps in their classrooms, or using more student-
centered instruction in ways that do not rely primarily on whole class discussions (e.g.
small group-work only).

The findings of this study are particularly sad since biology is thought to be the
STEM field with the most gender equity provided that undergraduate enrollment is
nearly equal in terms of males and females and slightly more women earn degrees in
the biological sciences. Without addressing social dynamics that perpetuate gender
biases in the college classroom, simply increasing the number of young women entering
STEM majors may not be enough.
(http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148405)
Section 10 – Learnings from Lab Session
I found lab this quarter to be an extremely valuable experience – from further
debriefing guest speakers or readings, to listening to presentations from my fellow
classmates, I felt that I had gotten a lot out of the experience as a whole and am grateful
to Jon for making it so engaging.

 Always sit at the table

 Show up
 Make your partner a real partner
 Don’t leave before you leave
 “Today’s a good day for a good day.” – Amy Hood
 Be brave, not perfect
 Leaders aren’t those with power, leaders are those who empower others
 Interviewing is a two-way street
 From our IT projects, I came to the realization that when diverse perspectives
come together, people tend to bring different strengths to the table leading to an
overall better end-product
 It’s important to deal with ambiguity and accept the fact that things are
complicated

Section 11 – Personal Career Plan

A career direction that I would like to pursue is to become a software developer. I
love the idea of being able to build and work on software projects in a team that can
positively impact vast numbers of people.

In order to help me land my dream job, I plan to continue to work hard and take
classes that fascinate me over my academic career here at the UW. I plan to attend
career fairs, learn more about a variety of career paths, and continue to gain work
experience before graduation rolls around.

I am a second-year Computer Science major who enjoys working with data. I am

a second-quarter teaching assistant for the introductory programming series (CSE 14X)
here at the UW and am one of the head grading TAs for CSE 142. I really love the CS
program here and am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to give back. Teaching
as an undergraduate has provided me with an incredibly unique experience and a great
community of friends and I hope to continue TAing for the rest of my time here. I, also,
might consider pursuing research at some point since there are so many fascinating
projects going on within the department.
 In addition, I have interned twice at Microsoft (once in Microsoft Research during
Summer ‘16 and once in the Windows Engineering System Build Team during Summer
‘17) and have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences there. I really value Microsoft’s
company culture and always find myself pleasantly surprised with how much I learn each
summer (both technically and personally). I hope to continue being involved with
Microsoft over my time as an undergraduate, and ultimately receive a full-time offer
upon graduation. I also would not be against interning at other companies, but for now
at least, Microsoft seems like a good fit. 😊

I view college as a great place where I can take interesting classes, meet new
people from different backgrounds, and most importantly – learn how to learn. I intend
to continue being an engaged member of the community and make the most out of my
four years here.

Section 12 – Final Course Assessment

This course definitely exceeded my expectations. I came into this course not really
knowing what to expect. INFO 102 was not a graduation requirement – I just thought
that the course sounded interesting. However, over the course of the quarter, I found
myself greatly looking forward to lecture and lab on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and eager
to see what topic we would be tackling for the day. There were obviously a lot of
questions that remained unanswered, but I still got a lot out of the class. I really began
to understand why women continue to be a minority in the STEM fields and why
diversity is key to innovation. More importantly, I identified ways in which we can
change the field for future generations to allow them to thrive and excel. I found all of
the guest speakers to be extremely motivational and inspiring, and all in all, I am
extremely grateful to Laura and the TAs for shining light on issues that didn’t really have
a proper outlet for expression in the past.