Women Stopped Coding
- What occurred during the same time as the beginning of the decline of women in computer science?
- Marketing and advertising focused almost exclusively towards males; boys specifically. Computers were marketed as toys or gadgets for boys. Just look at movies like Weird Science…disgusting, sex definitely sells, and young boys are impressionable.
- Home computers became a realm of haves and have-nots.
- Why does it matter that males had been playing on computers growing up?
- By the time they got to the college level they were well-versed in the how, what, and why of computers and their capabilities.
Diversity Matters
- When are diversity efforts most successful?
- Driven by a commitment from company leaders
- Why do diverse companies perform better?
- Diverse teams are smarter and more creative therefore more diverse companies are more competitive in their markets
- Give an example of how a diverse company can serve a diverse user base or vise-versa.
- Diverse companies are more capable of meeting and designing to the needs of a diverse consumer base because the people creating the solution are the ideal client avatar! This means they understand the issues and problems the consumer is working to overcome by using their product and can design it accordingly!