The Social Life of a Computer Scientist

Social pressures steer women away from technological fields. Despite what stereotypes may dictate, nerds are not antisocial. If you don't believe me, try putting two of them together and make a comment like, "I just upgraded my RAM to 64 gigabytes!" I'm not sure how this works, but that statement will unleash a flood of computer conversation that has enough nerdiness to send an entire football team running for cover. Nerds thrive in the presence of other nerds. What does this have to do with women? Women don't have conversations like this! There is no niche in the social market for women who enjoy discussing the processing power of their computers with each other. Because such personalities only emerge in the presence of other like-minded people, the technology nerd has not manifest itself in the female. Thus, women who have the interest and talent necessary to thrive in a technological field find themselves faced with a dilemma: are they willing to put up with a lifetime of social interaction with nerds? The answer is often no. The solution is for engineers and computer scientists to shake the nerd stereotypes. If the technology industry had the reputation of being filled with people who are socially capable and interesting to talk to in more aspects of life than just computers and technology (yes, there are other aspects of life), then women would line up to get their degrees. So stop reading this blog! Go call up a nice girl and take her out to dinner. Most importantly, stop thinking about computers and start thinking about people.