Joanne McGrath Cohoon is an associate professor in the
department of Science, Technology and Society at the University
of Virginia. She researches, publishes, and speaks on women's
under-representation in IT and gender segregation in higher
education. Especially at a time when unemployment is high and
our economy is weak, we cannot afford to lose anyone with the
technical skills to create a sustainable future, improve health,
build our cyber and physical infrastructure, and enhance
personal and societal security. A diverse set of minds needs to
tackle those problems. But we are largely missing out on women's
intelligence, creativity, and values in solving the problems we
all face. Why is this so? Evidence continues to mount that
capable women in technical fields have less confidence than men
that they will be successful. Researchers at Stanford University
recently published new findings that women engineering students
perform as well as men, but are more likely than men to switch
to a different major. These w