What do I know?What can we share?

How can we make it better?

Jane Chu Prey, PhDjprey@microsoft.com

Microsoft ResearchSenior Research Program Manager

Who What Why

• Who am I?• What are we going to be talking about?– What do I know: a perspective from someone who

is unfamiliar with the Latam gender/pipeline– What can YOU teach me?

• Why is this important?– Balance in the pipeline is a competitive advantage

Did you know?

10,000,000,000,000,000,000 grains of rice

• Ten quintillion: 10*1018

– The number of grains of rice harvested in 2004

Compare this to --

10,000,000,000,000,000,000 transistors

• Ten quintillion: 10*1018

– The number of grains of rice harvested in 2004

– The number of transistors fabricated in 2004

When I first started … hardware was king

And now …

So what about software?

Deep Blue, 1997

Deep Fritz, 2002

Today: Roughly 1 billion PCs …

Representing less than 2% of all processors!

Computing truly has changed the world

• Advances in computing change the way we live, work, learn, and communicate

• Advances in computing drive advances in nearly all other fields such as medicine

• Advances in computing power our economy– Not just through the growth of the IT industry –

through productivity growth across the entire economy

What I know… The Importance of IT to the Nation

and the World

IT is pervasive

IT drives the U.S. and global economy

IT is a critical tool of national security

IT drives science and technology

IT is changing the economic and social foundations of our society

IT Is Shaping Our Future

So why is this so disturbing?

In the United States• Girls comprise fewer than 15 percent of all AP computer science exam-takers – the lowest representation of any AP discipline.

•Between 1984 and 2006, the share of computer science bachelor’s degrees awarded to women dropped from 36 to 21 percent.

•Women hold more than half of professional positions overall, but fewer than 22 percent of software engineering positions.

•Within the top Fortune 500 IT companies, fewer than five percent of Chief Technical Officers are women.

What scares me …

What else scares me …

Bias is very damaging

• Stereotypes impact task performance and the standard we use to evaluate performance information.

• Stereotypes also impact the standard we use to decide whether our own performance indicates that we have sufficient ability. Central idea is that when you know that others do not expect “people like you” to be good at a given type of task, you judge your own performance by a harsher standard. This impacts aspirations as well. Shelley J. Correll Cornell University

Why Should We Care? More Women in IT Means…

» Global competitiveness. Research has found that companies with the highest representation of women in their senior management teams had a 35% higher return on equity and a 34% higher return to shareholders.

» A stronger workforce. IT jobs are projected to grow by 24 percent over the next eight years, which is TWICE the projected growth rate of the overall workforce. Total IT jobs estimated to be added to our workforce between 2006 and 2016 is nearly 1.6 million.

» Better products and services. Women purchase 66 percent of all home computers and spend more on consumer electronics than men.

» Increased innovation. Patent citation rates -- one measure of a patent’s usefulness -- are up to 42% higher for IT patents created by teams of both men and women.

Sources: Catalyst, 2006; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006; WOW! QuickFacts, 2006; NCWIT, 2007.

The Bottom Line: Innovation Suffers Without Diversity

But the future is FULL of opportunity

• Designing a next Internet – GENI/FIND• Driving advances in all fields of science

and engineering• Wreckless driving• Personalized education• Predictive, preventive, personalized

medicine• Quantum computing• Transforming the developing world• Personalized health monitoring =>

quality of life• Data-intensive supercomputing• Neurobotics• Synthetic biology• The algorithmic lens => Cyber-enabled

Discovery and Innovation

The U.S. BIG question:So why don’t women find computing compelling?

Is this the same here in Brazil?

What I heard at the Latam Faculty Summit

• Attendees– Claudia Bauzer, UNICAMP– Karin Breitman, PUC-Rio– Jacques Wainer, UNICAMP– Flavio Soares, IME-USP

• Overview of conversation– Unlike the US, there is an increase in the number of students in

computing.– The percentage of women choosing computing in Brazilian

universities is decreasing– The percentage of women graduating in computing is dropping

rapidly– The percentage of women participating in the entrance exams

decreases at every phase [vestibular]– The persistence rate is significantly higher for women than men.

Now your turn …

My questions to you

• Do you think there is a gender issue in your school?

• Why?

• What kinds of bias do you believe hinders the progress of women in computing in Brazil?

• What kinds of evidence do you need to be credible with the people who can help facilitate change? How can we get this evidence?

• Who are the people you need to partner with to have change happen in your school?

• If there is ONE thing you could change to improve YOUR school, what would that be?

Thank you for the privilege of speaking to you.