How To Make Every Search Ladies Night

A certain Harvard professor unleashed a tidal wave of flack when he suggested (in so many words) that innate differences between the sexes could help explain why fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Wow! I think in retrospect, he may have thought about his statement, slapped himself on the head and gave a Homer Simpson’ “D’oh!” sound. (Click here to see for yourself)

As much as I disagreed with so asinine a suggestion, it made me wonder how many women actually are in the IT profession. So, I decided to do my own non-scientific survey.

~women computer.science inanchor:resume

I got back 10,400 results. (For those unfamiliar with the "~" command, check out one of my earlier posts - "Kooky Google Trick #1") Hmm… Interesting, but not an overwhelming number, especially when I remove ~women from the equation. (176,000 results comeback... ummm... more or less, but that's a different story)

Not that this is scientific or anything, but I think it does reflect that IT is a male-dominated area. Okay, now I am even more curious and a question comes to mind. If I wanted to hunt female geeks specifically, how would I go about it? Hmmm… I know! I will find high-profile women in technology and find out what associations they belong to. So I do it and discover several, among them: SWE, WITI and AWC. (Curious? Look them up.) While I am doing this, I notice that a certain name keeps popping up: Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper was a pioneer computer scientist and a revered role model for women in technology. There are programs held in her honor all over the country and scholarships in her name. Hmmm… I wonder.

~cv grace=hopper software=engineer

This brought back 172 results. Were they all resumes? No, but quite a few were and guess what? All the resumes cited scholarships, programs or conferences that were in honor of Grace Hopper. So what does this teach us? Finding women in computer science is tricky in a male-dominated field. Also, we have learned that I am prone to tangents that are not always significant, but hopefully helpful in improving your digability.

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[If you like what I give away, you will love what I charge for! Check out: Digability: The Recruiter's Guide to the Internet]