Girls’ interest in technology starts at an early age, and they are looking to their fathers for support and inspiration. According to a 2015 Girl Scouts report, 68% of teen girls interested in STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math) say their dads play a key part in encouraging them.
This parental influence is critical at a time when girls in the U.S. are steering away from math, science and computers in record numbers. The percentage of women graduates in computer science is at a 39-year low. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in the mid-1980s, 37% of computer science majors were women; in 2012, that number had dropped to 18%. Today, women hold only 27 percent of all computer science jobs, and that number isn’t growing.
Reshma Saujani, founder of Girl Who Code, calls this decline “the most important domestic issue of our country’s time.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020 there will be 1.4 million new computer science jobs, but only 400,000 computer science graduates with the skills to apply for them.
“Tech companies can’t find enough engineers,” Saujani told an audience at the Equal Rights Advocates annual luncheon in San Francisco this month. “And for those who care about equal pay, there’s literally no pay gap GPS +3.83% between male and female engineers. It’s one of the most lucrative jobs that are out there, and we are not including half of our labor force.”