No women in tech ? Tragedy of unequal challenge.

Behind every great woman there is a man ready to steal her credit.

To be sure, men's credit gets stolen too, but as we will see shortly, stealing credit from women is easier.

Here is a list of brilliant women scientists whose credit was stolen by men. Please look them up on Wikipedia. The story of each one of them is a tragedy.

Vera Rubin, Cecilia Payne, Chien Shiung Wu, Nettie Stevens, Ida Tacke, Esther Lederberg, Lise Meitner, Henrietta Leavitt, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Rosalind Franklin.

Marie Curie would have been on the list if her husband did not refuse the Nobel prize unless it was shared with her - she actually deserved 100 percent of the credit. Even to this day when we think of genius scientists her name does not come up - she has been the only person to receive 2 Nobel prizes in 2 different sciences.

These are just examples of the widespread problem.

There is no reason to think that the times have changed. To prove that point, recently several scientific papers were double-published as experiments. One copy was published under a man's name, the other under a woman's name.

The man-"authored" papers were referenced and cited 10 times more. Source: Gender bias found in how scholars review scientific studies. Also: Scientific American: Study shows gender bias in science is real. Here s why it matters.

There is no reason to think that this bias is limited to academia.

We now have fewer women working as software developers and in technology in general than 30 years ago, despite various diversity programs and political correctness.

I suspect that it is the political correctness that is partially at fault - it hides issues, it does not address them. You can NOT address a problem unless you acknowledge it and talk openly about it.

The New Yorker Magazine article: WHY CAN’T SILICON VALLEY SOLVE ITS DIVERSITY PROBLEM? is detailing the problem.

This and other articles can be summed up in one sentence: For all the gains in equal rights, we did not progress at all in the area of equal challenge.

In the world of technology, science and math - equal opportunity is impossible without equal challenge, be it in school, at home or at work.

Without a challenge, one can not progress in technology.

From the moment children are born, they are treated differently. Girls get dolls, boys get toy trucks and Lego sets.

It continues through schools and universities. We, the society, work hard to convince girls and young women that the tech is too hard for them. We do not challenge them and do not encourage them enough when they exhibit interests and aptitude in maths and science.

At work, the modern society assigns more challenging technical problems to men allowing them to rise to the challenge.

As for modern data: Photo credit: Forbes.com from the article Here's the real reason there are no more women in technology. This chart below shows that there is a funnel issue, but rather than using this as an excuse great companies are fighting the issue through various diversity programs.

For those who say that women are not interested in tech, I have an answer - if there is no challenge, there is no interest.

We miss so much, because studies have shown that ON AVERAGE women have certain advantages over men in tech - attention to detail is at the top of the list. Source: Forbes.com: 4 Skills that Give Women a Sustainable Advantage Over Men.

We live in a stereotypical society. Our stereotype says that a man can not understand women issues. Which is why I, a man, do not expect to get more than 10 likes for this article.

After all, being a man, how can I understand the frustration women have for gender inequality and unfairness. Yes, that's right.

I can not understand that. I can only try to imagine. If each one of us does just that - tries to imagine - maybe perhaps this world will be a better place for everyone.

Equal challenge, please !

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