The Loss of Women

A few days ago I presented to my most esteemed colleagues in engineering the current statistics for our department’s retention of women. The L-shaped graph was met with a couple gasps. I’m sure this graph is mirrored across the country for the retention of women in engineering and I was glad it caused a stir. The loss of women, not just from the working force but also from the applicant pool deserves quite a stir. NPR proposed one hypothesis on why women stopped seeking computer science degrees. Check it out here: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding