The gender gap in tech, a new report suggests, starts very, very young — before kindergarten.
And it may begin when children first pick up their parents’ smartphones, laptops or tablets.
New research published recently by the Computing Technology Industry Association, a nonprofit trade group, found that young girls and boys have notably divergent experiences when it comes to technology in the home. And those experiences may shape their attitudes toward working in the tech industry later in life.
In June the nonprofit, also known as CompTIA, commissioned the Blackstone Group to conduct a study of children between ages 10 and 13 and another group between 13 and 17. They conducted an online survey of 200 boys and 200 girls as well as follow-up, in-person focus groups with 37 girls.
More than twice the number of boys reported using mobile devices by the time they turned 5 years old than did girls, according to CompTIA’s study. Among girls, just 5 percent reported using their parents’ devices by age 5, while 11 percent of boys did.
Parents, according to the study, are more likely to sit down with male children and teach them how to use certain devices. More than 70 percent of boys surveyed by CompTIA reported some level of parental direction or encouragement with regard to their interest in tech. About 59 percent of girls said the same.
“While boys and girls fairly equally have access to smartphones and tablets from a very young age, boys seem to get more encouragement to tinker with things and figure out how they work and what you can do with them than girls do,” said Steven Ostrowski, a CompTIA spokesman. “Some of that starts in the home.”
By middle school, girls begin to count themselves out of the tech sector, with only 27 percent reporting interest in entering a technology field. Over the next several years, that interest declines further, CompTIA found. About 18 percent of high school girls reported similar interests.
“Starting to recruit women in college is often too little, too late,” a report issued in December by the New America think tank argued. “Research shows that middle school and high school teachers can play key roles in shifting perceptions around stereotypical images of what a computer scientist or cybersecurity professional can look like — by introducing students to non-stereotypical professionals in the field, discussing the stereotypes and exposing them to media that challenges traditional images and traits that they may think a cyber professional ought to have.”
In cybersecurity in particular, a million jobs are predicted to open up this year alone. According to Mountain View’s Symantec, one of the largest security software companies, global demand for information security professionals will hit about 6 million by 2019 — but the pool of available workers is expected to fall about 1.5 million short.
“It’s a major threat to the security of any American who uses the Internet, and any business with digital operations,” according to the New America report, written by Elizabeth Weingarten and Megan Garcia. “That’s because as more of our personal information migrates to the cloud and global cyber threats continue to evolve and multiply, we will need more and more cybersecurity professionals working across industries. Without women, the industry will face a major talent shortfall to the tune of 1.5 million in the next five years.”
More than 209,000 cybersecurity jobs in the United States were unfilled as of last year, according to a 2015 analysis by Stanford University. And women make up just 10 percent of the information security workforce, according to the International Information System Security Certification Consortium.
One key element of the problem, experts say, comes down to how girls — and eventually women — perceive the industry.
“Part of the issue is image,” Ostrowski said. “The perception of what a techie looks like is out there, and that’s something we need to reverse through getting (girls) exposed to female role models and CEOs and industry professionals, so they see that there are women out there running tech companies and chairing boards of directors.”
Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org Twitter: @Marissa_Jae