Some hopeful advice on luring more women into technology pursuits -- assuming girls haven’t fallen behind by fifth grade.
From the interview:
Q. What would get more women to choose careers in technology? Ms. MacLean: We need to get girls interested in computing by first grade. By fifth grade, it's game over. Computing has an image crisis. A boy geek subculture has grown up around gaming that involves violence. It's not something little girls aspire to. It's not about lack of educational opportunities for women. Smart girls graduate from high school with straight A's, go to college, and find themselves surrounded by guys who've been hacking for 10 years. So they're way behind. They get discouraged, and go into law or medicine.