Strength in numbers

Dan Harmer, a computer science teacher in Brampton, Ontario was tired of seeing the few girls in his classes sit quietly at the back of the male-dominated classrooms, so he decided to change the distribution. The school complied with his request to put all the girls into one class and the result was remarkable: “It worked, the intimidation factor was gone and the girls loved it.”

And the positive outcomes didn’t stop there.

When female engineers at the Toronto offices of Cisco Systems Inc., a U.S.-based computer networking company, heard about the all-girls program, they invited the students for a visit. The pros wanted to show the girls the diversity of women working in IT and help them see the field as a viable career option.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the single-sex environment and visible role models are helping; rather than sitting quietly in the back of the classroom, the students in Mr. Harmer’s class brag that they know more about technology than their dads and report that they are considering careers in IT.