Inclusive Education Strategies for Diversity in Smart Workforce
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
6-9-2021
Abstract
We review the situation of women in computing professions and note that there is a mismatch between the percentage of women in computing jobs on one hand and their percentage in the population on the other. The absence of women in the computing workforce is to their detriment and the detriment of employers. Companies face difficulties when trying to fill open software positions with qualified applicants. Product teams are missing out on design input from "50% of the population."Women are denied the social mobility that well-paying computing jobs provide. Thus, improving the percentage of women in the computing workforce would be beneficial to the companies in multiple ways, to the women, and to society as whole, making it more equitable. Unfortunately, achieving this goal is a problem that has resisted decades of efforts. Only a multi-pronged approach spanning all levels of education, government and industry can lead to a breakthrough. It is especially urgent to overcome the shortage of qualified and certified middle and high school teachers. We present ongoing activities at one college to bring women into computing and to keep them in the program, and suggestions how governments at the federal and state levels can contribute to overcoming the computing teacher shortage, creating a pipeline to CS programs in colleges.
Identifier
85108165438 (Scopus)
ISBN
[9781450384926]
Publication Title
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
External Full Text Location
https://doi.org/10.1145/3463677.3463741
First Page
264
Last Page
272
Grant
2017S1A3A2066084
Fund Ref
National Science Foundation
Recommended Citation
Geller, James and Chun, Soon Ae, "Inclusive Education Strategies for Diversity in Smart Workforce" (2021). Faculty Publications. 4045.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/fac_pubs/4045