Women and IT

U.S. Jobs, 2006

49% men, 51% women

U.S. I.T. Jobs, 2006

74% men, 26% women

Women in the workplace are nothing new; they hold more than half the jobs in the United States. But the numbers change dramatically when it comes to the percentage of information technology jobs held by women. A look at K–12 shows this trend may not improve in the years to come: In 2006, 56 percent of Advanced Placement test-takers overall were girls, but only 15 percent of AP Computer Science test-takers were female, according to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that runs the Advanced Placement program and the SATs.

A breakdown of the finalists in the Intel Science and Engineering Fair shows similar statistics. While 54 percent of the finalists in biochemistry were girls, only 12 percent of the finalists in computer science were female.

Teens and Tech

The communication gap between teenagers and their parents is getting wider because of technology, according to the finding of this i-Safe survey.

• 87% of parents say they have established rules for their children’s Internet use.
• 36% of children say their parents have not made rules for their Internet use.
• 69% of parents feel they know a lot about what their kids do on the Internet.
• 41% of children say they do not share what they do and where they go online.
• 31% of parents have disciplined their children because of their Internet use.
• 73% of children say there is a need for children to learn about Internet safety.

Source: i-SAFE survey of 55,000 students and 4,500 parents, 2005, www.isafe.org