Narrowing the gender gap in tech starts with how we raise our girls
From Ada Lovelace to Grace Hopper (whom we aptly named one of our meeting rooms after) and from the women who worked with Alan Turing as codebreakers at Bletchley Park to the women who worked as NASA’s “human computers”, women have played a role in computer technology since its inception. Despite significant advances for women over the last 50 years, the percentage of women working in tech has dropped substantially since the 1980s. Women make up roughly half the US workforce; however, women hold just 26% of all U.S. technology jobs, 19% of all U.S. software developer positions, and just 6% of U.S. technology leadership roles. For an industry that prides itself on innovation and forward-thinking, how is it that female representation in tech lags far behind other fields, including business, law, and medicine?
The answer is intensely complicated.
We know that gender bias is extremely prominent in the tech industry. Much research has revealed that work experiences greatly impact women’s decisions to leave. Isolation, hostile male-dominated work environments, ineffective executive feedback, and a lack of effective sponsors are factors pushing women to leave tech jobs. That’s if women even make it through the door.
We often blame a “leaky pipeline” (the effect of marginalized groups dropping out of the talent pool, resulting in lower representation in certain fields) for the dearth of women in tech, but the issue of underrepresentation runs much deeper than this. Unwittingly, many companies foster a culture that doesn’t encourage women — and particularly, women of colour — to pursue a career in tech, and many companies’ recruitment and interviewing processes are incredibly biased, consciously or otherwise. Statistics Canada reported in 2017 that among young Canadians (aged 25 to 34) holding bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), men were almost twice as likely to work in science and technology jobs as women.
One of the primary barriers to entry is simply people hiring other people who are like them. In a recent interview with Harvard Business Review, Girls Who Code founder, Reshma Saujani, commented on this issue, stating, “Nobody gives up power and that’s really ultimately what we are talking about right now. Letting women and people of colour through the gates, that’s giving up power.”
Further contributing to the issue of underrepresentation is the fact that young women are not entering the study of STEM at the same rate as young men. Young men with lower marks in high school were more likely to choose a STEM program than young women with higher marks. In fact, young women with higher mathematics marks in high school (at least 90% in grade 9 or 10) were less likely to opt for a STEM university program than men with marks in the 80% to 89% range. Bearing that, we know that a lack of interest in these fields is not due to a matter of ability.
Studies have indicated that girls become interested in tech careers at age 11, but lose interest soon after. Experts point to a lack of female mentors as a factor responsible for this trend; however, the underlying issue is perhaps one that is far more insidious and therefore much more challenging to solve: we raise boys to be brave, and girls to be perfect.
From a very young age, girls receive a litany of messages that they are either too much or not enough: too loud, too quiet, too bossy, too mousey, too fat, too thin… The pressure to meet unrealistic standards of how a girl “should be” is unrelenting and encourages girls to strive for something wholly unattainable, which is perfection.
Perfectionism can be driven by socially prescribed expectations as well as self-oriented expectations. According to a new study called “Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time”, it is a mix of excessively high personal standards (“I have to excel at everything I do”) and intense self-criticism (“I’m a complete failure if I fall short”). Peer pressure, academic pressure, comparisons to siblings and friends, highly critical parents, teachers, and coaches, and messages about success, achievement, and failure all contribute to the trap of perfectionism. This tendency to try to be perfect affects mental health, physical health, and social functioning, which can lead to depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation, eating disorders and body image issues, high blood pressure, social isolation, and even suicide.
Author and shame researcher, Brené Brown, describes perfectionism as armour that protects us from blame, judgment, and shame. “Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best,” Brown explains. “Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.” When girls start believing they have to be perfect, they stop taking risks, hiding behind this shield. Perfectionism leads individuals to view their abilities as fixed: an all-or-nothing belief that they are either good at something, or they’re bad at something. This becomes especially damaging for young girls when subjects like math and science are not immediately understood with ease. Rather than seeing challenges and mistakes as learning opportunities, girls are more likely to assume, “I’m not good at this” or “I’m not smart”.
In her book, Mindset, Stanford University research psychologist Carol Dweck describes a fixed mindset as the belief that one’s abilities are carved in stone, wherein everything is about the outcome, “if you fail — or if you’re not the best — it’s all been wasted.” In other words, all-or-nothing thinking and perfectionism. Conversely, the growth mindset “allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of outcome,” and centers on the belief that intelligence is malleable and can be grown and nurtured through practice. This mindset encourages learning and development through trial and error, which, incidentally, is the very basis of scientific discovery.
So how do we raise our girls to develop a growth mindset?
It starts with how we speak to girls as parents, family, educators, and members of the community. Here are three ways that we can collectively work to encourage perseverance and resilience to gain competence and confidence — perhaps our greatest chance at building future generations of successful women in tech.
Focus on effort, not outcome
Struggle is a key part of learning. In his book, Making It Stick, author Peter C. Brown explains that “learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful. Learning that’s easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow.” One of the most effective ways of encouraging girls to overcome the fear of struggle (and the fear of failure), is to positively reinforce hard work rather than achievement. Moreover, research has shown that language matters for all children. Praising a child for “being so smart” actually has adverse effects on performance, reinforcing the fixed mindset belief that abilities are innate and inborn, whereas praising a child for “working really hard” fosters the growth mindset and supports greater feelings of success and fulfillment.
Make your home a shame-free zone
As much as we’d like, we cannot control all the messages girls receive at school, online, and from society as a whole. However, we can control what goes on at home. Teaching girls that they are not defined by their mistakes is best achieved by being mindful of how we react to their struggles, as well as how we react to our own. Showing vulnerability is an act of courage that works to dismantle the armour of perfectionism. When girls can feel free of judgment and criticism when they make mistakes, they are more likely to see challenges as learning opportunities. And, since children are astutely perceptive of adult behaviour, it’s all the more important to model that vulnerability and lead by example. In Brené Brown’s words, “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.”
Help girls to problem solve
Lastly, it’s our responsibility to provide girls the building blocks with which to tackle hard problems. Teaching girls to break challenges down into smaller, more manageable components helps build confidence and gives them ownership over the problem. When girls are brave enough to explore solutions and test assumptions, they build resilience. Though personality traits are not immutable, they are established early in life and are difficult to change. In a report on strategies for the next generation of female executives conducted by Korn Ferry Institute, perseverance, resilience, risk-taking, personal fortitude, and courage were listed as common traits among the female CEOs studied. Providing supportive environments where girls can develop these inclinations and aptitudes through problem-solving is key to building a solid foundation for future growth. Knowing they have the tools to take on increasingly more difficult problems is incredibly empowering. And when girls feel empowered, well… nothing seems out of reach anymore.
While women continue to work hard for equitable pay, representation parity, and more inclusive work environments, let’s not forget to invest in our young girls. Here’s to our future Lovelaces, Hoppers, scientists, developers, coders, and engineers. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.
How are you celebrating Women’s History Month? What does International Women’s Day mean to you? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter, or you can email us.
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