High-tech balancing act

Women break glass ceiling as numbers rise

Aparna Das-Caro was a minority in her college classes.

A 1993 graduate of the University of Washington-Seattle, she earned degrees in math and computer science. She also was one of only a handful of women in the classes that counted toward those degrees.

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“In a class of 20 or 30 people, I saw maybe three or four (women),´ said Das-Caro, now a research and development project manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Fort Collins. “It was a small percentage.”

She has felt like less of a minority since joining the staff at H-P more than seven years ago.

The number of women companywide totals more than 38 percent of H-P’s 88,000 employees. It starts at the top with CEO and president Carly Fiorina and progresses down to include five women out of 11 in executive positions. Women hold 30 percent of H-P’s management positions and 38 percent of its professional positions.

Those numbers are a reflection of H-P’s mission of being an “inclusive environment that helps attract, retain and develop a diverse work force,´ said Renee Benzel, public-relations director at H-P’s Fort Collins facility.

But the numbers are weaker when the number of women in R&D positions such as Das-Caros are examined.

“Women hold approximately 19 percent of the R&D jobs in the company,” Benzel said. “The glass ceiling has been shattered, but it hasn’t completely fallen.”

The top five fastest-growing occupations between 1998 and 2008 are information-technology jobs, according to research conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor also reported that nearly 75 percent of tomorrow’s jobs will require use of computers, while less than 33 percent of participants in computer courses and related activities are girls.

Colorado is among the states needing the most workers in rapidly growing and ever changing technology fields. A 1999 study commissioned by US West, now Qwest, showed Colorado had 7,000 unfilled technology jobs and predicted the shortage would swell to 30,000 over the next decade. With that coming high-tech job crunch, employers may have a hard time filling those positions if women aren’t taking an interest in the field.

Women earn only 18 percent of doctorates in computer science in the United States and girls made up only 17 percent of the high-school students who took the advanced placement exam in computer science, according to a September 1999 New York Times article.

Girls have the same aptitude for math, science and technology as boys. But somewhere along the line – usually in fifth through seventh grades – they get turned off and derail from tracks that will lead them to technology-related jobs.

“Right around junior high is when girls start self selecting out of (math, science and technology-related) electives,´ said Holly Sample, School-to-Career coordinator for Poudre School District.

Girls might turn away because of peer pressure, because they don’t want to be viewed as “brainy” or “nerdy,” or because no one encouraged them to stick with it.

Deborah Ogden, also an R&D project manager at H-P in Fort Collins, remembers guidance counselors trying to steer her away from advanced science and math courses.

“When I was in high school, I was definitely not encouraged to take math and science,´ said Ogden, who graduated from North Carolina State University in 1976 and has been with H-P for 24 years. She credits her own determination for propelling her into her dual degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.

While Ogden admits that her high-school experience is far-removed in years from that of today’s teens, it isn’t all that different. Das-Caro for example had a similar experience nearly 20 years later. Her guidance counselor advised her to drop her physics class and take sewing instead. She credits her parents’ encouragement for helping her forge ahead with her love of science and math despite the discouraging advice of her counselor.

There are many other girls who’ve had similar experiences. According to the National Science Foundation, 34 percent of high-school-age girls reported being advised by faculty not to take senior math.

The problem of limited female interest and participation in high-tech careers isn’t one that can be solved solely by employers. Instead, the solution must come from schools – elementary through college – and society as a whole.

Schools are the first place where change can start, Sample said.

“It does seem that schools continue to be a barrier,” she said.

While the gaps in math and science achievement have narrowed for girls in the past six years, a major new gender gap in technology has developed, according to a report released in October 1998 by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.

“Girls have narrowed some significant gender gaps, but technology is now the new boys’ club in our nation’s public schools,” stated AAUW Executive Director Janice Weinman. “While boys program and problem solve with computers, girls use computers for word processing, the 1990s version of typing.”

For example, while girls make up about 50 percent of the typical computer-applications classes in PSD, only four enrolled in the Cisco Computer Network-ing Academy at Rocky Mountain High School when it opened.

“They just don’t see themselves in that environment,” Sample said.

A number of factors contribute to the limited number of girls embarking on high-tech career tracks. Lack of role models may be one of them, and it may be the easiest to address.

Mentors are shown to make a positive difference.

“The increasing presence of mentors has been a crucial force in increasing the numbers and satisfaction of women in science, engineering and mathematics,” according to “Gender Equity and Mentorship in Science, Engineering and Mathematics,” a 1997 report from the Advocates for Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics.

A mentor made a difference for Das-Caro. When she got to H-P, Ogden was her mentor. “Part of my success is due to Deborah,” she said.

Das-Caro has tried to make that difference for others at the company. And H-P has tried to make that difference for many more. The company spent more than $180,000 last year in Larimer County for education initiatives. It has also given $90,000 in grants to create hands-on science programs at local schools.

Those K-12 programs are important, Benzel said, because if girls’ imaginations and enthusiasm aren’t captured early they will not have the right prerequisites to pursue a technology degree in college. Nor will they have the interest.

Sample agreed. She said programs such as those sponsored by H-P, along with math and science clubs for girls and other programs aimed at keeping girls’ math and science skills sharp, are vital. And while a lot of ground has been covered and the equity gap has grown smaller, she said there is still a ways to go.

“This is a systemic issue that includes attitudes and beliefs, teaching practices and strategies, as well as institutional practices,” she said.

Das-Caro and Ogden know that much ground has been gained in terms of equity in high-tech careers. They are living proof. But they, too, see room for improvement.

If there wasn’t a ways to go, Ogden said, it would be commonplace that women make up 50 percent of the work force in every career field at every level, just as they make up 50 percent of the population.

“It would be just like the air we breathe,” she said.