The College Board reported a 31% increase in students taking the Computer Science Advanced placement test. Females and under-represented minorities were one of the fastest growing groups.
In your opinion:
I've been reading Brotopia which so far has been quite eye opening. For example in 1984 40% of CS students were female and we've gone backwards from there.
One thing that I think probably contributed is that one of the main "what career/degree are you suitable for" tests, had criteria set which determined that to be a programmer you should have certain traits then men are usually more socialized towards, and NOT have traits that women have been more traditionally socialized towards. So women taken these test were generally not recommended to look at CS as an option.
Also computers being marketed as a 'boys toys' rather than unisex probably didn't help.
I was in an advanced math class which then got me introduced to the computer club at school, but even with me being in the computer club, learning to program basic in my own time, when it came to what I should study when we first did electives CS was never shown as an option. :(
As such, whilst I've always worked in some form of tech, my developing fell by the wayside. I still fight with an internal voice saying I'm not technical enough, even though I won a national award in the technical category for women in ICT. Go figure.
I struggle now with thinking that I'm not in a techie enough role to get other women into 'proper' tech (I'm a technical writer). I'm working to overcome this!