Advice to girls considering technology careers: Take risks. Straight As don't matter.

[lumberjack_jeff]

http://fortune.com/2015/08/29/lisa-seacat-deluca-advice-for-female-engineers/

I told them that if they didn’t have a lot of experience with programming before college, they could opt for the easier route and merely minor in computer science to test the waters before they plunged all the way in. However, I suggested before they sell themselves short, they try to experience technology-related internships to see what a real life engineer does on a day-to day basis.

Taking a risk is always scarier when there are unknowns. Removing these unknowns helps people become more comfortable with making bold choices in life.

Sadly, the self-doubt and aversion to risk they exhibited is all too common and reflected in many studies that show women are more risk averse than men. Not only are males more likely to take risks under stress than women, but risk-taking actually increases for men in stressful situations, according to a 2012 study. It also found that women avoid risk as their levels of stress increases. Such differences have dramatic implications for how we, as women, make decisions in our everyday lives, especially decisions that shape our future.

Is this one of the reasons men dominate engineering?

[Major Nikon]

1. No

It's entirely the fault of teh patriarchy. No reason to study any other likely causes because other than the plumbing, women and men are exactly the same.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. My girlfriend has been at this for twenty-five years

She truly believes is is mostly a function of social ostracism that girls face from other girls in the early adolescent years for doing anything that could be perceived as uncool. She didn't care, she was a lot more interested in her little projects and boys than sitting at the cool girls lunch table or hanging out with the cool girls at the mall. Her mother wasn't keen on her endeavors either, but her father loved working on them with her.

Any number of influences and decisions can follow that, but there is an immediate setback if someone doesn't have those formative adolescent tinkering years. By the time she was fourteen she knew that building electronic gizmos was what she wanted to do and from there she figured out the academic path she had to follow, but building things like cable descramblers that actually worked or running a bootleg telephone to her boyfriend's house that also worked are roughly the same experiences that are highlighted in any bio of any man in Silicon Valley are what set the stage for her career. Not waiting to be inspired in a university elective or taking a risk on a challenging course. I'm sure if I asked her she wouldn't say she perceived her path as taking a risk, I don't think she had a plan b because her decisions were driven by her passion.