It happened. In the 1983–84 academic year American institutions awarded 32,439 bachelor's degrees in computer and information sciences and 12,023 of them went to women.
Then it fell for twenty-four consecutive years, to 17.6% in 2007–08. It has recovered to 22.6% — still more than fourteen points below where it stood in the year the Macintosh was released.
Whatever explains 22.6% today, it cannot be anything that was also true in 1984. The routes below are the ones that move it back.
The five findings
Thirty-Seven Point One
Women earned 37.1% of American computer science degrees in 1983–84. The ceiling is not where it currently sits.
Twenty-Two Point Six
Women earn 58.5% of all US bachelor's degrees and 22.6% of the computer science ones.
Twenty-Seven Point Five
Women hold 27.5% of American computer and mathematical jobs — more than hold the degree usually said to be required.
Fifty by Thirty-Five
Half of the women who take a technology job have left it by 35. Retention, not recruitment, is the constraint.
Eighty-Five Point Five
Women in computing earn 85.5 cents on the dollar, unadjusted. What that is and what it is not.
Each of the five is a full package: the finding, eight routes, all 51 states, and every one of the 3,152 counties in the United States. A search from anywhere in the country has an answer written for that place.
The eight routes, and what each asks of you
| Route | Who is obliged |
|---|---|
| The high school course | 33% of enrolment, where the decision is mostly already made |
| Dual enrollment | Publicly funded in most states, and it settles the question early |
| Community college | Open enrollment, and the most common re-entry point |
| Registered apprenticeship | A wage from the first day, and no gap in earnings |
| Returning after time out | Structured return-to-work programmes, explicitly for a multi-year gap |
| An industry certificate | Dates your skills rather than your gap |
| Moving across where you already work | Requires someone with authority to know you want it |
| Self-taught with a portfolio | Nothing is required of anyone |
A pipeline with a hole in the middle does not fill faster by pouring harder. If half the intake leaves by 35, halving the exit rate does more than doubling the intake.
Every campaign
Amigos en Acción runs eight. Each takes one group and one barrier; the last one is the sum of them.
Start with Thirty-Seven Point OneSite index
Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the people inside the federal counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.