Facebook
and LinkedIn want to boost dwindling numbers of women studying
engineering and computer science with a collaborative initiative
announced Friday that they hope will eventually fill thousands of
lucrative Silicon Valley jobs long dominated by men.
In a joint
interview , Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and LinkedIn CEO Jeffrey
Weiner said they're launching mentoring and support programs at colleges
to get more women involved in studying technology in general, but also
as future employees for their companies.
Fifteen percent of
Facebook Inc.'s employees working in tech jobs and 31% of all employees
are women, according to diversity figures the company released last
year. At LinkedIn Corp., women comprise 17% of its tech employees and
39% of employees overall. Most Silicon Valley companies have similar
demographics.
Telle Whitney, president and CEO of the Anita
Borg Institute, which is a partner in the initiative, said diversity
brings greater innovation in technology.
"Think about it,"
Whitney said. "If everybody who creates a product looks the same, you
know the results won't be nearly as interesting. We want for the sake of
our future to have women involved in all the projects that will change
our lives."
Sandberg launched an international conversation
about the dearth of women in positions of power with her 2011 book "Lean
In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead." She has pressed to bring about
change through her nonprofit LeanIn.org, which will provide a platform
for the support groups.
"A lot of our consumers, at least half,
sometimes more, are women. We build a product that gives people a
voice. We know we can't build a product for the world unless our teams
reflect the diversity of the people who use the product," she said.
But the talent pool is shrinking: The percentage of people enrolled in
undergraduate computer science programs who are women peaked at 35% in
1985 and is now down to about 17%.
Weiner said LinkedIn needs gender equity to better serve users.
"To limit the perspective of the people building our product and
services, if that's too narrow, it's going to lead to suboptimal
outcomes," Weiner said.
The executives would not disclose how
much of a financial commitment they are making, but the investment is
different in that it's more focused on peer groups and a mentoring
process already established through Lean In Circles. They hope it will
go global, with groups at public and private universities.
Stanford University computer science student Lea Coligado, 21, said she
and her female colleagues could use the support and mentorship.
"There's so few of us, so we definitely stick together," she said. "I
think there's a stereotype. It's understated and people don't want to
say it out loud, but it's there - the idea that women are just not very
good at computer science - and some use that to justify why our numbers
are so low. It's flabbergasting."
Coligado is not only good at programming, she loves it.
"Programming teaches me a very distinct way of thinking," she said. "If
I have a problem, I break it into chunks and conquer it."
Paige Rogalski, a senior at Santa Clara University studying computer
engineering, said she saw the already scarce number of girls in her
program leave in their first year.
"I think it was because of the intimidation factor," she said. "Computer science has been a male-dominated field."
She said that while she's been mentored and largely supported, she also
hears sexist comments and jokes, and was once told that her appearance
was a factor in why she was hired.
"It still bothers me that as
a woman I have to overcome prejudice and the sexualized view of women
in order to be taken completely seriously," she said. "On the other
hand, this comment has pushed me to work harder and have my effort and
my work stand out and be what I'm known for."
