Facebook and LinkedIn announced Friday they have formed a partnership aimed at supporting women studying engineering and computer science.
According to the National Center For Education Statistics, only 18 percent of student majoring in computer science are women. That number is a bit surprising considering three decades ago 35 percent of computer science majors were women.
So now LinkedIn and Facebook are partnering with the Anita Borg Institute to develop the Lean In Circles, a network to provide advice and support to women studying computer science and technology on college campuses.
Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg has had a prominent career in technology; before joining Facebook she spent seven years as a vice president at Google. But she said she still feels more can be done to get women into the field. (Video via TED)
Sandberg told Mashable, "The thing about stereotypes — and it hits leadership, it hits technical fields — is they're completely self-reinforcing. The reason there aren't more women in leadership is because there aren't more women in leadership."
Facebook, Google and Yahoo released separate diversity reports last year that all basically revealed the same thing: men make up the vast majority of their workforces.
For example, Facebook's employees are 69 percent male and 31 percent female. But the numbers are even worse in Facebook's tech departments, which are 85 percent male and 15 percent female.
Last year, a study by Silicon Valley Bank found less than half of tech companies in the U.S. have women in leadership positions.
So Sandberg and the rest of the Lean In team hopes to provide advice, support and will use this latest partnership with LinkedIn to help women show off their resumes and network for job searches. (Video via The Guardian)
Since being formed in 2013, Lean In Circles have created programs on more than 300 college campuses.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
