Communications of the ACM
Google Manager: Technology Needs to Attract More Women
The technology industry needs to do more to bring women into the field, according to Google's Marissa Mayer.
Speaking during the recent Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy conference, Mayer said girls are expressing little interest in computer science as early as middle school and high school. Still, Mayer, who was the first female engineer hired by Google in 1999 when the company had less than 20 employees, believes the gender imbalance is changing. "Now with the pervasiveness of the Internet, video games, and technology all around us, I hope a lot more young women get interested in, 'how do you build that?'" she said.
Mayer noted that she did not become interested in computer science until her freshman year at Stanford University in 1993 when she took a course to fulfill a prerequisite. She bought her first computer that year, but did not even know how to turn it on and use a mouse.
Mayer said girls should not think that they have to give up their other interests to become computer scientists. "It's important to send the message that you don't have to give up your femininity to enter a space like technology," she said.
From Dow Jones Newswires
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