4 ms·

there were less than 5 girls on my computer science class, so unless woman are claim that they should have the job without education. I can totally see the reas

there were less than 5 girls on my computer science class, so unless woman are claim that they should have the job without education. I can totally see the reason why there is a gender diversity in IT?

beat 10y ago
Why is a computer science background necessary for an IT career? I know many, many IT professionals who did not study CS in college.
- kerbalspacepro 10y ago
  No, but also yes.
- TooGhosty 10y ago
  Maybe it is not strictly necessary but someone with a CS degree is obviously going to be the preferred hire.
  - onion2k 10y ago
    Firstly, that isn't true. Huge numbers of people learn to write code as part of a degree that isn't CS - for example, if you want someone to develop a GIS startup you'd be better off with a geography graduate who can write decent code than a CS graduate who probably doesn't have experience of GIS. Secondly, if you hear "startup" and think "developers" then you're ignoring at least 50% of the work necessary to make the business a success, all of which can (and often should) be done by someone without a CS degree. There's a lot more to tech than writing code.
    - TooGhosty 10y ago
      Fair points for sure. I would agree with this.
- ci5er 10y ago
  "IT Professionals" is a broad label. Maybe we can think of getting a 'degree in a field' as a proxy-variable for 'interest in the field'. What's astonishing to me is through the 60s, 70's and into the mid-80s, computer-tech interest in female cohorts tracked with science, law and medical fields. Then it flattened and fell, while female participation in those other three fields continued to expand at the rates they had before. (So, what happened in 1985?)
  - rrdharan 10y ago
    This Planet Money episode attempted to tackle that question: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-... Their tl;dr answer is that video games happened, and they were marketed exclusively to boys; that's what created and drove the cultural rift.
    - ci5er 10y ago
      Thanks for that link. My original sighting of the phenomena used the exact same graph, but made no attempt at being explanatory. I have since then, been searching, but failed to re-find a copy of that graph to stick into my files. Now, thanks you you, I have! Thanks!
tedmiston 10y ago
This data point isn't super useful without telling us the total size of your class. 5 out of 5–10 is great, 5 out of 25–50 might be realistic, 5 out of 100+, not great.
- almostarockstar 10y ago
  I'm from a class of 30. There were 2 women. This is in Ireland though.
  - merb 10y ago
    same here (tough we were 32 guys and 3 women). - germany, still have relationship with teachers, they barly see more than 3 girls/30 in 5 classes per year.

beat 10y ago

Why is a computer science background necessary for an IT career? I know many, many IT professionals who did not study CS in college.

kerbalspacepro 10y ago
No, but also yes.
TooGhosty 10y ago
Maybe it is not strictly necessary but someone with a CS degree is obviously going to be the preferred hire.
- onion2k 10y ago
  Firstly, that isn't true. Huge numbers of people learn to write code as part of a degree that isn't CS - for example, if you want someone to develop a GIS startup you'd be better off with a geography graduate who can write decent code than a CS graduate who probably doesn't have experience of GIS. Secondly, if you hear "startup" and think "developers" then you're ignoring at least 50% of the work necessary to make the business a success, all of which can (and often should) be done by someone without a CS degree. There's a lot more to tech than writing code.
  - TooGhosty 10y ago
    Fair points for sure. I would agree with this.
ci5er 10y ago
"IT Professionals" is a broad label. Maybe we can think of getting a 'degree in a field' as a proxy-variable for 'interest in the field'. What's astonishing to me is through the 60s, 70's and into the mid-80s, computer-tech interest in female cohorts tracked with science, law and medical fields. Then it flattened and fell, while female participation in those other three fields continued to expand at the rates they had before. (So, what happened in 1985?)
- rrdharan 10y ago
  This Planet Money episode attempted to tackle that question: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-... Their tl;dr answer is that video games happened, and they were marketed exclusively to boys; that's what created and drove the cultural rift.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    Thanks for that link. My original sighting of the phenomena used the exact same graph, but made no attempt at being explanatory. I have since then, been searching, but failed to re-find a copy of that graph to stick into my files. Now, thanks you you, I have! Thanks!

tedmiston 10y ago

This data point isn't super useful without telling us the total size of your class. 5 out of 5–10 is great, 5 out of 25–50 might be realistic, 5 out of 100+, not great.

almostarockstar 10y ago
I'm from a class of 30. There were 2 women. This is in Ireland though.
- merb 10y ago
  same here (tough we were 32 guys and 3 women). - germany, still have relationship with teachers, they barly see more than 3 girls/30 in 5 classes per year.