I entered STEM in the late 90s and women weren’t discouraged (much), but we also weren’t actively encouraged. Neither were the guys. The head of our IT department was a woman, and that was actually not that rare, back then. In fact, the % of women getting comp sci or IT majors has been steadily falling, as this article by Texas Tech University magazine notes.
I’ve long been puzzled by the big “Girls Coding” push, that the corporations have been engaging in. It accomplished nothing in my workspace, except causing potential colleagues to view me with increasing suspicion. Entering IT teams in the 90s, everyone assumed I must be a genius because everyone there was some sort of genius. Now, they assume that I’m there to fix their “lack of diversity”. This starts me off on the wrong foot, every time.
People went into IT because they cared about the subject matter. There wasn’t much money in it, so the work atmosphere wasn’t cutthroat or dominated by venture capitalistic intentions. We were just a bunch of middle class mathematicians and engineers, basically, hiding out in the computer room with our nerdy friends, building stuff we thought would be useful and cracking our dorky jokes.
Destroying this wholesome atmosphere with divisive company politics, turning it into a high-stakes game for gamblers, and the constant economic precariousness of software projects, is what made women leave IT and it is what is keeping women away.
We’ve managed to recreate that familial atmosphere, in our GitCitadel (npub1s3h…75wz) team, and that’s probably why we girls like being there. Turns out, the people who are best at recognizing your talents and accomodating your personal responsibilities, are your friends on the team, who are simply happy that you’re there and want you to keep showing up.