I was driving to school last week and I saw something that made me do one of those TV-like double takes. That is where you look at something, look away, and then immediately look back once you’ve realized something is not quite right. It was a girl lying under her car—doing maintenance, probably changing her oil. She looked like a normal girl and it was a normal car, and I immediately felt bad for thinking it wasn’t a normal thing. This situation reminds me of taking math, science and programming classes. I have had semesters where I walk into the classroom and a quick scan shows 3 out of 140 students to be female. I used to think “so much for finding my future wife in one of my classes!” Almost all the women in my math classes were going for a math education major or math major, none that I knew of aimed to be physicists, engineers, computer scientists, etc. The worst part is that more often than not, the women in those classes are the hardest working students who got the best grades. We need them in engineering! We need them in computer science! Paul De Palma, on writing about why girls avoid computer science, suggested that we teach girls how to program simple, functional, logical programs at a young age. I think this a great idea. If I have any daughters, I’ll give this one a try and I’ll let the world know my results in whatever social media platform is popular in 15 years.

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