Less than 20 percent of women in the United States are leaving college with a degree in the computer science and information technology fields, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology.

At Georgia Southern University, professors and students in the field said women make up less than 10 percent of computer science and information technology majors.

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While the specific number of women in the computer sciences and IT field at GS has not been released by the Strategic Research and Analysis department, Lixin Li, GS’s only female computer science teacher, says that the men far outnumber women in classes.

“From my teaching experience, if we have a full-size class, such as 35 students, for sure it’s under five female students,” Li said. “A lot of times it’s just one or two.”

Alexander Fields, a senior computer science major, says he thinks that Li’s numbers are being generous.

“I would say zero to three,” he said, “Three being the max I’ve ever seen.”

Why the drastic gender gap?

Li believes part of the reason for this could be due to girls in high school being intimidated by the idea of a field that involves so much computing, but Hannah Bryan, a senior information technology major, says that is not the case for her.

“I feel I can be up to the par with anybody else,” Bryan said. “I’m not intimidated at all, I love it. I actually feel very accepted.”

Bryan originally came to follow in her mother’s footsteps and get a degree in nursing at GS, but after attending a speech on IT, she decided it was the career for her.

Bryan, however, is still in the heavy minority. According to computerscience.com, IT has a projected growth of 15 to 20 percent in the next ten years, but even with those numbers “the vast majority of computer science jobs will be pursued and filled by men.”

According to an infographic released by the National Center for Women in Technology, some of the reasons for women opting out of the computer sciences field include classes that rely on lectures instead of hands-on activities, no group collaboration and few female teachers. Li says this may be a misconception.

“Maybe there is some type of misconcept [sic],” Li said. “If you are in the computing field that you are just working behind a computer. But I think that is a misconception. I know that girls are maybe more interested in communication skills…soft skills.”

Priscilla Perez, a junior with a minor in IT says that she believes most women decide to pursue careers outside of IT and computer science because it is math intensive, even though that’s exactly why she likes it.

“Maybe it’s because [women] don’t enjoy engineering and technology,” Perez said, “I like math and that’s what got me into it.

What universities are doing

While most colleges and universities across the nation have a very low rate of women computer science majors, a few universities are introducing new ways of teaching that could potentially change that, with Carnegie Mellon raising the statistic from 7 to forty percent according to NPR.

GS, however, may be taking a step in the right direction with a recent interest in a chapter for Women in Technology at Georgia Southern. Their most recent meeting was held on Monday, Jan. 29 in the I.T. Building.

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The goal of the organization is to promote, embrace, and support women in technology and business related fields.

It is still unclear whether or not women will ever share the IT space equally with men, though Bryan has hope.

Bryan said, “I think with the way technology is going, I think it’s getting better. I think that girls are learning that technology is a viable career path that’s actually fun.”