Study: Girls Reject Tech Careers

C H I C A G O, July 5 -- High school junior Katy Prendergast is pretty blunt about why she decided to take a computer programming class.

She doesn’t care what goes on inside her computer. She has nogrand thoughts about a high-paying technology job.

All that mattered to Katy was getting another credit towardgraduation; the introduction to computer programming class happenedto fit her schedule. She did well, earning a “B,” but she’d stillrather leave the technical work to someone else.

“It’s tough work getting it to work exactly correctly and it’sfrustrating because one misspelled word and you can’t get it towork,” Katy said recently during the final week of classes atMother McAuley Liberal Arts High School on Chicago’s southwestside. Referring to Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, she added,“I say let him have it all, let him do it all.”

Making Labor Shortage Worse

Technology experts find that an alarming number of young girlsfeel the way Katy does. The number of computer science degreesawarded to women is hovering below 30 percent at the same timetechnology companies are begging for highly skilled employees.

“What we want is to have qualified people we can hire,” saidLinda Scherr, chairwoman of IBM’s Women in Technology program.“Since women are half the work force and so few go into computers... we’re on the brink of disaster here.”

“There will be companies that go out of business because theycan’t hire the skills they need. The manpower — or womanpower — isgoing to be the major challenge,” she said.

A recent report by the American Association of University Womenbacks up those fears. “Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the NewComputer Age” was put together through interviews with 70 middleschool and high school girls, an online survey of almost 900teachers and from the experiences of commission members and otherwomen in high-tech fields.