Sandberg reverse-engineers female isolation problem at colle
Source: Eric Risberg
In this photo taken Tuesday Feb. 3, 2015, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg answers questions during an interview at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. A new Facebook and LinkedIn collaboration announced Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, seeks to boost the dwindling numbers of women studying engineering and computer science today, a field booming with lucrative Silicon Valley jobs long dominated by men.
There have been moments over the past year when Patricia Cristina Perozo, a Stanford sophomore, considered dropping out of the computer science program.
But she hasn't. She credits her tenacity to the support she receives as a member of Stanford's Society of Latino Engineers. She also says she felt energized after being a Code2040 fellow, an internship program for Latinos and African-Americans, and attending Facebook University, the company's summer internship programs for freshman engineering majors.
Now Perozo has founded the first computer science Lean In Circle at Stanford, a group of 12 men and women who meet weekly to talk about the challenges of navigating the challenging major. They also work through a curriculum inspired by "Lean In," the 2011 book on gender and careers by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
"This is something we need," Perozo said. Recalling how jazzed she felt after her summer experiences, she said, "this circle can also be that for people."
This week's announcement that LeanIn.org, Facebook, LinkedIn and the Anita Borg Institute are joining forces to expand the Lean In Circles to focus on offering mentoring and support to computer science and engineering majors is inspired.
The creation of yet another support group may not seem like a big deal. But as has been the case with Perozo, it's hard to know what helps someone to stick with a hard goal.
In a sense, the initiative is Sandberg's attempt to reverse engineer the problem of the dearth of women pursuing computer science and engineering majors by breaking it down into smaller parts.
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One of the issues women face is a sense of being an anomaly in a sea of men.
In a blog post announcing the initiative, Sandberg recounted the stark statistics -- just 18 percent of computer science graduates today are women, compared to 35 percent in 1985.
"Stereotypes are self-reinforcing; computer science and engineering classes 'feel male' because they are dominated by men," Sandberg wrote.
While Lean In Circles have grown globally to 21,000, they haven't had a strong campus presence. There are just 300 campus circles, the organization reports.
One of the factors is "the leaky pipeline," with women who enter computer science programs dropping out along the way.
But if women see other women in their field, they may be inspired to stick with it, said Telle Whitney, the president and chief executive of the Anita Borg Institute, which puts on the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
In 2014, nearly 3,000 students attended Grace Hopper, with 88 percent crediting the event with their increased commitment to a tech career, the organization says.
"We can scale the lessons from Grace Hopper and make it year round for students in particular," Whitney said. Many "don't have a concept of what technology means. It exposes them to a wide variety of options. They see what is possible."
While there haven't been actual goals set for women with computer science degrees, "achieving 40 to 50 percent women is not out of the question," she said.
That's a big goal. But maybe by breaking the issue down to its smallest parts, it can be achieved.
Contact Michelle Quinn at 510-394-4196 and mquinn@mercurynews.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/michellequinn.
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