I cannot directly answer this question, besides stating the obvious: I have lived a life and have had experiences that makes me interested in the field. Think about why you came to be interested in your intended major.

Currently, American society, especially those attune to feminism, looks closely at the demographics of various academic fields and career paths. Previously, I explored how the culturally defined notion of gender as it relates to the leadership opportunities of women in various societies. For this episode I have decided to explore the role of gender and culture with concern to women obtaining jobs in typically male dominated fields of Science, Math and Technology. Statistically, women are underrepresented in these fields. When exploring this issue there are several things to consider. First of all, one must think with an opened mind about the subject. There could be several reasons for the underrepresentation of women, and none should be discounted for the fact that they more or less support your particular ideological camp. Two such example of reasons why women may be underrepresented include society producing fewer qualified women in the public school system, or alternatively, women are discriminated during the application process. Another consideration is that based on the culture of American society, women are systematically subliminally discouraged to enter STEM fields.

Currently, there is a major push for increasing the representation of women in traditional male careers to improve equality of gender representation. As I researched this topic, I came across an interesting conversation between writers for the Forbes magazine, one in response to the other. There is clearly a lot of contention between the two writers and I think that each help to frame important schools of thought.

The first article titled “The Real Reason Most Women Don’t Go Into Tech” was written by Gene Marks and published by Forbes on March 16^th of this year. The author cites the major reason for the underrepresentation of women in tech is simply that women generally not even interested in tech. The author substantiates this by giving examples of how in terms of technological education, both boys and girls in the US receive the same amount of attention. From this, Marks concludes that it is simply the fact that most women choose other career fields that there less women in STEM fields. Another interesting fact he cites is the fact that boys score higher in Science and Math in the US, and gives a similar reasoning as above.

The second article is titled “The Real Reason Most Women Don’t Go Into Tech According to Women” written by Tracey Welson-Rossman and was also published by Forbes, and was put out just three days after the first one. Although the major reason for writing the article was seemingly to personally attack Mr. Marks, she does blend in some material concerning “the real reason”. The justification this author gives is that women don’t find tech fields attractive. She goes on to talk about how she has created an organization that attempts to make technology careers seem more attractive to girls.

If you see the same thing that I do, you notice that both authors agree with the reason that there are less women in STEM fields than men. The first time I read the articles, I though they substantially disagreed. However after sifting out the second author’s animosity, I realized both are arguing the exact same thing! The only slight difference between the two arguments is that second author gives examples of how the trend can be reversed, which in fact is outside the scope of a response to the first article and in fact the article’s own title. I apologize for my digression from the topic at hand; I just think it is essential to note how the articles were written.

To wrap up, I want to discuss the bigger picture of the issue, something that was omitted by both authors. The first thing I would like to mention is that the reason why girls overwhelmingly choose not to go into tech fields is ultimately determined by the culturally defined notion of gender. The authors seem to ignore the fact that very subtle aspects of human upbringing and social influence can have a huge impact on a persons predisposed opinion on joining the tech industry. Whether it be childhood toys or expectations of peers, there is some reason (or reasons) why women prefer not to join the tech field. Another aspect that only the first author touched upon was the decision to call the gender ratio of the tech industry a problem. Of course I want every human being to have the ability to seek out whatever career their heart desires, but I fail to understand why the fact that women largely choose not to join the techie ranks is a problem since it’s not what they want. This brings up my final point. It seems to me that socially constructed social norms help to determine dominant gender interests and consequently make decisions in life based on some mechanism of their human psyche that has been shaped by the social norms. Therefore, why is it important to push against the grain of people’s character when they would be content being someone else? I find that the biggest need for change is not in defining what people’s skill set and personality should be to fit “ideal” ratios, but rather in creating a culture that embraces and protects each individual’s mindset and strives for equality in opportunity and potential for success.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2015/03/16/the-real-reason-most-women-dont-go-into-tech/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/valleyvoices/2015/03/19/the-real-reason-most-women-dont-go-into-tech-according-to-women/