Women In Computer Science Club

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Greater Disparity in Utah

An article in the Salt Lake Tribune, "Utah among highest in gender wage gap" says that the income disparity is very high in Utah. Women in Utah make 69% of what their male counterparts earn. The article claims that it is less due to discrimination and more due to issues like senority, education and culture. Which I agree totally.

This is the reason that there needs to be drive to recruit women in CS. It takes effort to break out of this cycle. This brings upon a responsibility to identify the issues women in CS face. I have heard the argument from guys why is there no drive to recruit men in the MFHD majors? Well you can't expect to find a job with a MFHD major that pays 75K as the starting salary. Also it is not the men at the recieving end of the income disparity. It is necessary to make women aware of the oppurtunities available to them and encourage them to pursue it.

1 Comments:

At 8:05 PM, Blogger Neha Rungta said...

Good point. But there are other issues which are not related to discrimination. Like there is nothing to stop women from choosing Computer Science as a major, yet only 15% of the total CS majors are women. This is very steeped in stereotypes. What the article is getting at is that women working full time are in general making less money than their male counterparts because they don't have the technical/management degrees. A woman with a college degree might be a secretary, because her major doesn't enable her to get a high paying job.

The discrimination is when you are equally or more qualified but are still overlooked for promotions or advancements. There have been a few women who have sued companies for it.

 

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