Left Behind
Yet as the authors of Unlocking the Clubhouse point out, amidst the tumult of changes created by technology and its influence on our culture and the way we live our personal and professional lives, women and girls have fallen out of the loop. As many girls and women as boys and men are surfing the Web, and females, by some estimates, spend more on online purchases than males do. Yet hardly any girls and women are learning how to invent, create and design computer technology. In the nation's research departments of computer science, just a fraction of graduates are female.
Unlocking the Clubhouse is but one of a growing number of efforts to fathom the daily experiences of women studying computer science, to capture the dynamics and details of the so-called "leaky pipeline" - the exodus of women from computer science - and to develop ways of getting more women switched on to technology careers. Margolis thinks it is time women broke down the doors of the "all-boys clubhouses" that have so far dominated the conversation among computer sciences.
Why should it matter if the inventors, designers and creators of computer technology are mostly male? For one thing women who do not become engaged with technology are missing major educational and economic opportunities. For another, command of IT is an invaluable asset to many non IT-related careers. However, Margolis also fears a lack of female participation is damaging the health of computing as a discipline and its influence on society most of all, given how badly unrepresentative product design groups can go wrong.
"Along with technology's power comes the responsibility to determine what computing is used for and how it is used. These concerns may not be on the minds of young male adolescents who get turned on to computing at a very early age and go on to become the world's tech-gods. But these concerns must be part of a computer scientist's line of work," Margolis says.
She argues the conversations among computer scientists can no longer be isolated to all-boys clubhouses; women's voices and perspectives must be part of this conversation. For this to happen, women must know more than how to use technology; they must know how to design and create it.
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