As we all know, college is expensive. But its worth it, everyone tells you.

It
guarantees you a job, a living wage, everything you have ever wanted. All for just
50,000 dollars a year! College is sold as a magical fix all, well worth everything you
do to get in, let alone pay for it. But for women, especially women in STEM, college
is far from magical.
Always surrounded by smart, college educated women, I have grown up believing
that I can do anything. In fact, I was always a little confused whenever someone
said that to me; Women can do anything. To me, it seemed like an obvious
statement, a simple fact of life. My mother tells me I responded with a surprised cry
of No! Really? when told that there had never been a woman president of the
United States. But in my AP Computer Science class, I am one of 4 girls. Sitting in
the front of the room soaking in knowledge and next to some of the brightest
women I have ever known, its easy to forget that behind me, sit men that far
outnumber us. Compared to the 7 boys in my class, the gender disparity isnt much,
but when I looked into college gender gaps, I found that only 18% of people who
major in Computer Science are women. Women are scarily underrepresented, as in
all STEM fields.
One would think when you get into MIT, or Harvard, or Yale, or earn your Bachelors
degree, your Masters degree, your P.hD you would no longer hear that Women
arent smart enough to code. But in todays society, your stereotypical geek is
definitely not female. The term fake geek girl is thrown out by enough of the
Sheldon Coopers of the world to make girls want to never have anything to do with
brogrammer culture. Brogrammer culture is becoming a trend in companies that
hire many young, fresh out of college male programmers. The hostility faced by
females in this thoroughly un-diverse world is ironic, considering how these geeks
were often the nerds bullied in high school, made to feel like outsiders and are
forcing that same environment on women. But if female programmers werent made
to feel like outsiders in their own field, maybe more would sign up. This stigma
translates into wages. In a study done by the Social Science Research Council,
Silicon Valley women in high tech jobs earn 49 cents to every dollar a man makes.
As with all STEM fields, women are discouraged from entering computer science
because they arent taken seriously.
Although the rest of the world might be telling them not to, I believe that if we
continue to encourage girls to go into computer science, this cycle of isolation and
feeling unwelcome will end. Although the current environment of STEM fields is far
from desirable, our generation has to be the ones to change that. It can be telling
just one girl Dont listen to what they say. You are as smart as any boy and you can
achieve anything.
But the question is, should AAUW even be telling girls to go to college with the
current rates of unemployment and financial debt? Yes. No, if you go to college you
are not guaranteed a career. But the fact is 22.9% of high school graduates are

unemployed. Many college graduates are also unemployed, but fortunately,

computer science majors have a lower rate of unemployment than other majors:
4.9% compared to 6% of business majors. In our technology and media driven age,
computer science is one of the top 3 fastest growing fields in the world, according to
Loyola University. The horror stories of underemployment and mountains of debt are
not as daunting if you are in demand.
AAUW is not wrong for funding higher education. It is our duty to lift these women
up past the foreboding male dominated world and into the future, where women are
treated with respect everywhere. We have to encourage them to succeed by giving
them the tools to do so. As in my favorite quote by Beyonce, We have to teach our
girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible . If we give these smart,
capable girls a college education, the computer science world will have no choice
but to accept these human beings as equals.
Is college worth it? College usually comes with crippling debt. It comes with the fear
of unemployment. It is no longer a surefire path to success. It comes with risks of
campus harassment and sexual assault. Am I scared by all of this? Of course I am.
But we as women have to push on. If we do not force our way into these fields we
are being pushed out of, our voices will not be heard. So yes, I think that college is
worth it. It gives me the chance to stand up to men in this field and say I am here. I
will make a difference. And you cannot change that.