海角大神

Silicon Valley has a mounting image problem. The meritocratic principles of the startup culture聽聽due to numbers that show that hiring and funding seems to favor the聽.

Google put the spotlight on the issue聽聽that 70 percent of its workforce is male, and predominately white (61 percent) or Asian (31 percent). 鈥淲e鈥檙e not where we want to be when it comes to diversity,鈥� Laszlo Bock, Google鈥檚 senior vice president of people operations,聽. 鈥淚t is hard to address these kinds of challenges if you鈥檙e not prepared to discuss them openly, and with the facts. All our diversity efforts, including going public with these numbers, are designed to ensure Google recruits and retain many more women and minorities in the future.鈥� And in its own way, toymaker Lego entered the fray by announcing this month they would put out figurines that show聽聽(science, technology, engineering and math) careers鈥攃areers typically dominated by men.

The lack of women in tech is held up against the backdrop of declining female programmers鈥攐nly聽, according to the US Department of Labor, down from a聽聽despite the wild growth of the industry.

The dream of a more balanced gender ratio hits the hard reality of the gaping demand for skilled programmers. It鈥檚 a chicken-and-egg conundrum: a male tech culture promulgated by聽聽and an educational pipeline that leaks women, despite the fabulous opportunities in tech.

But this will change. In fact, as the industry matures, it must change. As Ashley Gavin, curriculum director of聽, says, this is not just a 鈥渇emale鈥� problem鈥攊t鈥檚 a people problem. 鈥淵es, there are very few women pursuing computer science, but there are also very few people pursuing computer science. There鈥檚 only like 70,000 graduates in computer science every year,鈥澛�.

Here are some signs that change is afoot:

California college shows turnaround is possible

Maria Klawe, a mathematician and former dean of engineering at Princeton University, became president of Harvey Mudd College in 2006 and 鈥渉as had stunning success getting more women involved in computing,鈥澛�. Within four years, the ratio of female computer science majors rose from 10 percent to 40 percent, a feat that helped Klawe become recently named one of Fortune鈥檚 鈥�.鈥�

The college鈥檚 approach was groundbreaking in its simplicity. Rather than an introductory computer class designed to separate hardcore talent from dilettantes, the class was rebooted to focus on creativity and problem solving. All female freshmen go en masse to the聽, the annual Woodstock of women in computing, to immerse themselves among industry role models. Inspired by Klawe鈥檚 success, other universities have 鈥渞edesigned their computer science courses to be less intimidating,鈥澛�.

Grassroots groundswell growing

Just ask Alaina Percival, CEO of聽, who will be part of NerdWallet鈥檚聽聽event. Any startup would be envious of the growth her group has achieved: founded in 2011, the group aims to bridge the gender gap in IT with networking and events that bring female tech professionals together. Membership is growing at a rate of 1,000 members per month in 12 countries, with launches in a new city around the world every week.

Alaina works 鈥渢o provide an avenue for women to move into tech, give them the tools to move up in their careers, and provide a place that is just for them to help them stay in tech,鈥� she聽. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a real need for engineers, and this is a great time for more women to get involved in tech.鈥�

More female executives equals more profits

NerdWallet is an outlier on the San Francisco startup scene as more than 50 percent of our staff are women. The reason? As co-founder聽, it was a happy accident born from our first hire being female, and our first executive a woman. Now, 10 of 12 senior managers are women. In short, to draw female employees it matters that women are the ones doing the hiring.

听补蹿迟别谤听聽shows that companies with a higher ratio of women in senior management and corporate boards reap greater profits.聽聽of the top 400 California companies by the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis adds to the list, showing the top 34 firms with the 鈥渉ighest percentage of women as board members and executives earned three times more revenue.鈥�

You can鈥檛 just paint it pink

Women will generate $18 trillion globally in 2018 compared with $13 trillion in 2013鈥攎ore than twice the anticipated GDP growth of China and India combined鈥攁nd by 2028 will control 75 percent of discretionary spending worldwide,聽. Tech firms will increasingly count on the female market for their survival. Gamemaker Zynga grew from 40 employees to more than 3,000 between 2008 and 2012 on the appetite of 35-to-45-year-old Midwestern women for the breakaway hit Farmville. Yet too often in tech, firms cater to women by building a product for men and painting it pink.

鈥淭he result: USB cords painted with daisies, sparkly clutches that hide wireless speakers (and have no room for anything else), and Della.com, a site launched by Dell Computer in 2009 that sold pastel-colored laptops,鈥澛犅燚ell took the site down after a few weeks. 鈥淲e learned from that mistake,鈥� Dell told Alsever.

Tech offers women the best pay, flexible lifestyle

While much has been made of the difficulties women face in tech, the industry offers several bright spots for women. As the New York Times notes in a piece about the dearth of female CEOs in all industries,聽. Not only is the pay higher, but tech companies are much more likely to allow flexible hours and working from home, which can be invaluable for working mothers.

鈥淥ne of the things tech embraced early is flexibility around how you work; not how hard you work, but how you work,鈥� Singh Cassidy, now chief executive of Joyus, a video shopping site, told the New York Times. 鈥淪ilicon Valley favors the rock star, including the female rock star, and once you鈥檙e there they do everything they can to keep women in the C-suite and promote them.鈥�