The lack of women in software engineering is an embarrassment rather than a function of their biology. The crude assertion of biological determinism, made in an internally circulated memo by a Google employee that then went viral, has thankfully been disavowed by the tech giant. In a company-wide email a Google vice-president stated the memo did not match the company’s belief that “diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of our values and the culture we continue to cultivate”.
We are all to some extent influenced by our biologies, but they do not define us. General differences between men and women may exist; they certainly do not account for disparities of the magnitude that we see in software engineering. At Google only 20 per cent of technical roles are filled by women, and in Britain a meagre 4 per cent of software developers are women.
The division of roles starts early. Overall, girls are more successful at school than boys and attend university in greater numbers. But this general trend is not carried over into the computer sciences. Figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service showed that fewer than one in six school leavers beginning an undergraduate degree in computer science last year was female and far from improving, the trend has been going into reverse.
The total number of girls taking either ICT or computer science at GCSE fell by 12 per cent from last year, while the number of boys taking either subject increased by 6 per cent. Women account for only 17 per cent of IT professionals in this country, a figure unchanged for three years. A mere 12 per cent of software developers are female.
Nothing ought to stop women from being successful coders. In India, where by most measures women have a narrower set of opportunities relative to men than they do in Britain and the United States, women are more likely to be employed in technical roles. The notion that men and women have different aptitudes for such work seems not to apply there.
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Britain must urgently redouble its efforts, therefore, to ensure that more girls pursue further studies in computer science. Schools need to bring female role models from the tech industry into the classroom, to show girls that the coding club is not a boys’ club. This is not simply a question of fairness and breaking down entrenched stereotypes that there are “boy jobs” and “girl jobs”. It is good economics.
Ministers never miss an opportunity to underline the importance of the digital economy to the future of the United Kingdom. It is regarded as one of the country’s potential strengths after Brexit. For start-ups to be fully supplied with the type of software engineers they need for innovation and future growth, however, it is necessary that they have access to the deepest talent pool possible. When this group does not include more than half the population, they lose.
For women to feel that there is a place for them in the industry it would also help if tech companies sought to shake off their “bro-coder” image. Tech groups brand themselves as the pathfinders of the 21st century. By failing to address issues of sexism they are lumping themselves together with the old-fashioned, aggressive and macho business culture that they claim to reject.
To attract the brightest, companies like Google must signal clearly to women, schoolgirls and students alike, that they will be given the opportunity to make the most of their talents. Otherwise they risk losing out to those who move with the times faster than even Google does. Bright young women will seek to make their careers elsewhere.