As the tech world grows faster each year, its surprising to know that women in tech has drop significantly. Only 26% of those graduating with a degree in STEM are women. Why are less women interested in graduating in computer science major when it is such a booming industry? While there are many reason stated in this article news article from the Wired and Times, from a lack of female-friendly environment to gender stereotypes used for recruiting, I believe there are not enough role models being highlighted. For instance, Bill Gates, popularized and praised for his impact in technology, but his wife, Melinda Gates, we hardly hear about. While I understand she didn’t start a billion dollar company, she was one of the first pioneers graduating and going into the computer science.
Learning to code in high school, she vigorously wanted to get a degree in computer science. Melinda earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Duke University in 1986. Thirty percent of her graduating class were females (now days one 1 out of five CS graduates are females). The following year got her master degree in business the following year. As she got offers, included her current summer employer IBM, she accepted the job at Microsoft. Knowing this company was something special. She started at Microsoft in 1987 and was one only female out of the 9 MBA graduates entering Microsoft that year. She started out as product manager, developing multimedia and interactive products. And in 9 years managed to work her way up to general manager of information products.
With her strong foundation in the industry, Melinda has become a leading advocates for females in STEM. Since most companies are driven by data, women should play a role in collecting and developing the data. The type of data that makes choices for us and will impact future generations. And she believes without women having a hand in data, we can slow our progress down. Melinda Gates is a wonderful speaker, and change maker, in has made an impact around the world.