Women’s representation in computing professions has declined since the 1980s

Evidence

Women in tech, however, generally work in marketing, public relations, project management, event planning, graphic design, or community management, all lower-status jobs than developers, engineers, venture capitalists, or entrepreneurs. The number of women in computer science is dismally low; according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, women comprise 19 percent of hardware engineers, 21 percent of software engineers, and 22 percent of computer programmers. Computer and mathematical professions are, overall, 75 percent male. Moreover, these numbers have actually decreased since the 1980s. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 710

Categorization

• QUESTION: The decline since the 1980s is striking — what specific policy or cultural shifts reversed earlier gains?
• XREF: connects to: A woman’s tech career was dismissed despite evident professional success — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 706; Women’s tech careers were systematically credited to male mentors while men’s were not — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 704; Women face extra barriers to mentorship, and mixed-gender professional relationships get sexualized — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 698 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Women face extra barriers to mentorship, and mixed-gender professional relationships get sexualized #expands (0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 698
• Women’s tech careers were systematically credited to male mentors while men’s were not #complicates (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 704
• Tech’s meritocracy rhetoric contradicts its actual demographics and practices #corroborates (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 645