理工女性为什么这么少？

    卡伦•珀塞尔决定主修电子工程时，就连被她辅导过数学课的几个男性朋友都感到惊讶不已。她回忆说：“几乎所有人的反应都是：‘工程系？为什么？’或者‘你知道你学的是什么吗？’”即使到了现在，作为PK Electrical公司（位于里诺的PK Electrical公司是一家获过奖的电气设计、工程和咨询公司）总裁的她偶尔也会在工地上碰到这样的客户：“他们本能地想找个男性团队成员来答疑解惑，哪怕他刚从学校毕业。”她说：“我也经常被称为‘亲爱的’。”

    工程和技术领域里的大部分女性（数量并不多）可能都对此深有体会。尽管存在着引人注目的科技公司女性高管，例如谢丽尔•桑德伯格和罗睿兰，但在所有的计算机科学岗位中，只有约20%是由女性担任。尽管女性握有60%的学士学位，并且在劳动大军中占到48%，但仅有7%的首席信息官（CIO）是女性，每7名工程师中也只有1名是女性。

    为了弥合这种差距，珀塞尔撰写了一本书，名叫《解锁才华：女性在科学、技术、工程和数学领域兴盛壮大的明智策略》（Unlocking Your Brilliance: Smart Strategies for Women to Thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math）。这本书所得收益将用于资助非盈利组织STEMspire。她在去年夏天创建的这个组织向女性STEM（即科学、技术、工程和数学）学生提供奖学金，并向创办技术和工程公司的女性提供种子资金。在最近的一次访谈中，珀塞尔谈到了这些领域里女性为什么这么少的原因，也谈到了改变这种情况的办法。

    《财富》：从事STEM工作的大多是男性，这是为什么？

    珀塞尔：有两个原因。首先，女性自身错过了进入这些领域的好机会。美国商务部（the Department of Commerce）预测，到2018年，STEM岗位数量将增加17%，远远超过了其他大多数行业的增速。STEM也已经跻身收入最高的领域，原因部分在于岗位需求的增长。

    但除此之外，就实际情况而言，女性的缺乏导致了产品设计错误等问题。以自动化工程师设计首批安全气囊为例。这些安全气囊按照设计团队成员的身体尺寸来设计，但他们都是男性。因此，安全气囊在车祸中展开时，体型较小的人（女性和小孩）就有可能受伤。语音识别软件也遇到了类似的情况。这些软件起初只能识别男性的声音。让更多女性参与进来有助于企业设计出对所有客户都能发挥功效的产品，而不仅仅是另一半的男性。

    那么，为什么没有更多的女性从事工程和技术工作呢？

    这种差距很早以前就出现了。当时，初中和高中里的女生们开始收到这样的隐晦信息：数学和科学是男生干的事情。很多研究显示，女生在标准化数学测试中的表现和男生一样好，但父母和教育工作者的那种无意识偏见把男生推向了科学和数学领域，同时把女生排挤在外。幸好这种情况现在已经开始改变。

    已经在从事STEM工作的女性如何获得认可和晋升？

    When Karen Purcell decided to major in electrical engineering, even male friends whom she'd tutored through math classes were surprised. "The typical reaction from almost everybody was, 'Engineering? Why?' or 'Do you know what you're getting yourself into?'" she recalls. Even now, as president of PK Electrical, an award-winning electrical design, engineering, and consulting firm based in Reno, Purcell runs into the occasional client on a construction site who "automatically looks to a male team member for answers, even if he's fresh out of school," she says. "I get called 'honey' and 'dear' a lot, too."

    Most women in engineering and tech can probably identify — not that there are many of them. Despite a scattering of high-profile female tech executives like Sheryl Sandberg and Ginni Rometty, women still hold only about 20% of all computer science jobs. A tiny 7% of CIOs are female, and one in seven engineers, despite the fact that women hold 60% of all bachelor's degrees and make up 48% of the workforce overall.

    To help close that gap, Purcell wrote a book, Unlocking Your Brilliance: Smart Strategies for Women to Thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. The proceeds will help finance STEMspire, a nonprofit she launched last summer to offer scholarships to female STEM students and seed money to women starting tech and engineering companies. In a recent conversation, Purcell talked about why there are still so few women in these careers, and what it will take to change that.

    Fortune: Why does it matter that STEM careers are still pursued mostly by men?

    Purcell: It matters for a couple of reasons. First, women themselves are missing out on great opportunities by not going into these fields. The Department of Commerce is predicting that STEM job openings will grow 17% by 2018, a much faster rate than most other careers. And these are among the highest-paying fields too, in part because of that rising demand.

    But beyond that, in very practical terms, the shortage of women leads to problems like mistakes in product design. Look at what happened when automotive engineers designed the first airbags, for example. The airbags were designed to fit the body dimensions of the all-male design team. So when the airbags deployed in car accidents, people with smaller body sizes -- women and children -- were at risk of injury. Something similar occurred with voice-recognition software, which at first was calibrated to recognize only male voices. Having more women around helps companies design products that will work for all their customers, not just the male half.

    So why aren't there more women in engineering and tech jobs?

    The gap starts very early, when girls in middle school and high school start getting subtle messages that math and science are for boys. Even though plenty of research shows that girls do just as well as boys on standardized math tests, there is this unintentional bias among parents and educators that pushes boys toward science and math, and nudges girls away. Luckily, that is starting to change.

    What are some ways that women already in STEM jobs can gain recognition and move up?