Once again, I’m feeling frustrated as I read an article that clearly conveys the idea that women don’t belong in tech. There are numerous articles and studies that debate similar theories about women and technology. Here are just a few returned from a simple google search:

• Slate,  Women and Science: Are Career Preferences Really Created in the Womb
• Inside Higher Ed, Closing the Gap
• The Next Web, Beauty and the Geek: Gender Politics in Tech
• Time Magazine,  Study: Are Women Choosing Romance Over Math and Science?

The study mentioned in the above Time Magazine article is the same one discussed in yesterday’s The Daily Orange.  The article is entitled “Bad Chemistry: Study finds women’s romantic interests outweigh desire to pursue math, science fields.”  You can find a copy of the entire study here.

Here are just a few of the reasons I’m frustrated by this piece:
1)  The attempt by the author to reflect the results of a single study as truth.
2)  The attempt to analyze the results of the study and extrapolate them to the ability to ‘balance romance and schoolwork.’
3)  The drawing accompanying the article depicts a woman dropping her ‘Great Poets’ book to be embraced by a man, while a female behind them engrossed in Science and Math books sits alone. (see above)
4)  The only two female students interviewed for the story both agree that they have done things differently because of gender stereotypes, including the decision not to go into the specialty of oral surgery because it is male dominated.  The male student interviewed doesn’t seem to mind as much about smart girls in the engineering field.

I work at the iSchool and I’m surrounded by smart women in the technology field every day.  I don’t see them walking around forlorn and without the possibility of romance in their lives because they have chosen to be in a technical field.

So, I’m looking for an iSchool female student to tell the other side of the story.  Tell us how being in this field has enriched your life, has given you more opportunities, and has not affected your dating prospects.  If the argument is that there are many more men in the technical schools, isn’t that a positive for the women who are looking for male partners?

Contact me on twitter @kellylux or send me an email kalux@syr.edu to share your story!  And, of course, we’d love to have you share your comments below.