Basically, they found that:
1) Social capital and network ties were even more important to women than men : Many successful women entrepreneurs have strong ties to a man that gives them legitimacy as opposed to successful men that tend to have larger, but weaker network ties. There was also some discussion on this panel I saw recently at an Astia conference that women tend to have 2 different networks -- one social, one professional -- while men tend to integrate their social and professional networks much more easily.
2) If a woman has a technical degree then that levels the playing field: Women technicians have a much easier time getting their ventures funded. But clearly there is work to do in order to build a pipeline of technical women leaders. Sep and I are still working away to do our part through CodeEd. Looks like we'll be expanding into two more schools/program NYC and also found two great teachers to start teaching a program in San Francisco in the spring.
8 comments:
Quick question about what you mean by technical degree. Obviously the terms stands on its own, semantically anyway; however I was curious as to what you mean in terms of advocacy for an increase of technically trained individuals, specifically women (and, although not the focus of this, folks of complexion).
There are some who strongly believe that the nature of schools and education as a whole has been moving towards what would be considered technical training vice a holistic and rounded educational experience. Thus, schools (especially elementary and secondary, however I think post-secondary institutions are also largely following this trend) are becoming extremely technocratic in nature and less and less about education; that is an introspective and creative analysis (critique if you will) of the world we live in. This, of course is a matter of opinion in terms of what actually constitutes an education, which I concede is a much larger conversation in and of itself.
Obviously, a grand compromise is always best, I just was curious about how you were defining technical training.
In any case, Congrats on the success you are having with the program!! Seems like a great thing for the youth in NYC and the Bay area.
R/
Justice
Angie,
Can you get that link back up to the research you cited? This concept has recently become relevant in discussion about whether women simply "do not want" to become engaged in STEM fields..?
In any case, if you have the link or the name of the study, it would be of great assistance.
R/
Justice
Hi Justo. It looks like it's a forthcoming publication: http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/Publications/index.html.
At the conference I went to they handed out a summary of findings. I can't find a direct link to that but if you google "re-examining the myth of supply-side rationale" you can find a pdf of the synopsis as the first result (called Slide 1).
Hope this helps. Also, I've been meaning to respond to your thoughtful comments above but I just had a baby 2 weeks ago so I've been too distracted to formulate a good response. I promise I will get to it soon though once things settle down a little.
Thanks for the link, and Congratulations!
R/
Justice
Interesting times to be a Wisconsin native...
In any case, I am moving to the eastern seaboard (Boston) and would love to shoot down and chat about your work with the program.
if that works, shoot me a note.
jcasta@live.com (I have a military induced aversion to social networking sites)
Hope all is well with the family.
R/
Justo
I may be dense, but is this my old grade school friend Justice?
Yes it is.
Ha! I just realized that contacting you on your blog may be a bit unnerving.
In a nutshell, here is what I am up to: Just finished a MA at the School of Ed. out here at Stanford, and am moving to the Boston area for 4-6 more years of grad school. Been working with H.S. populations of, um, 'kids with character' (turns out, I once knew a kid with character), and am going to be checking out different models of Ed. programs aimed at HURM populations.
Shoot me an email and I will tell you all about it. Like I mentioned, I stay away from social networks/public forums where I can avoid them.
Again, apologize for the random post.
R/
Justice
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