They're thinking too hard about this...

Researchers study software gender gap

Often when I go to software conferences I get asked why there aren't more women in Computer Science. Knowing only my own reasons for following this path, I never really know what to say, though it's at that point that I appreciate the remarkably short line for the ladies' room for some reason.

But when I read something like this article it makes me cringe more than a little. I can't imagine that a woman's low confidence level when using a piece of software is anything more than a symptom of the real problem. It's not the cause. It can't be the cause. At least, no more than it's the cause of me shying away from, say, literary theory. The real cause is unfamiliarity, and it all goes back to childhood in the case of computer software.

Most of my female friends growing up did not play video games, program the VCR, or take stuff apart and put it back together. Most of my brother's friends did. If I hadn't been so busy trying to compete with my brother, I probably would cower at the term 'debug' as much as the next woman. But I was curious about how stuff worked, so I followed my brother around, and I followed my Dad around. I started to play the Atari games, and when my Dad finally bought a computer, I was ready for more. Luckily there was a computer club at my elementary school, and a very decent typing program. And then came the shining moment when my high school guidance counselor revealed to me that if I really enjoyed spending time messing around on our home computer, I could by all means do that for a living.

But back to my point. I can't believe that the solution lies in software redesigned for people who don't know what the right-side mouse button is for, or coaching young girls to understand Computer Science's practical applications to topics (like media!) that they would be more interested in. I decided at the last conference I attended that the solution lies at home. The inquiring men at these conferences need to go home and show their daughters what they're doing - on their computers, under the hood of the car, inside the toilet tank - how it works, why it works / doesn't work. Confidence needs to be built by early experience, not by over-designed software.