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Malia Politzer is the executive editor of piqd.com, and an award-winning long-form journalist based out of Spain. She specializes in reporting on migration, international development, human rights issues and investigative reporting.
Originally from California, she's lived in China, Spain, Mexico and India, and reported from various countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Her primary beats relate to immigration, economics and international development. She has published articles in Huffington Post Highline, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue India, Mint, Far Eastern Economic Review, Foreign Policy, Reason Magazine, and the Phoenix New Times. She is also a regular contributor to Devex.
Her Huffington Post Highline series, "The 21st Century Gold Rush" won awards from the National Association of Magazine Editors, Overseas Press Club, and American Society of Newspaper Editors. She's also won multiple awards for feature writing in India and the United States.
Her reporting has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Institute For Current World Affairs, and the Global Migration Grant.
Degrees include a BA from Hampshire College and MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where was a Stabile Fellow at the Center for Investigative Journalism.
Why Are Women Underrepresented In The World Of Computers? The Real Answer Will Surprise You
Did you know that women once ruled the world of computers? One of the industry’s pioneers was Grace Hopper, a PhD mathematician and programmer for the Harvard University computer used to model the potential impact of the atomic bomb. Nor was she an exception: In 1946, six women programmed the US military’s first computer. And in 1963, three black female NASA mathematicians worked to calculate the flight paths that launched John Glenn into space (inspiring the film Hidden Figures).
In fact, programming was once considered to be “women’s work”—like operating telephone switchboards, or working as a typist. “Women are ‘naturals’ at computer programming,” Hopper was quoted saying in a Cosmopolitan article urging women towards this new, well-paid job.
So what happened? That’s the subject of this fascinating BusinessWeek longread by journalist Emily Chang. The answer might surprise you.
It all goes back to a “vocational interest scale” created by two (male) psychologists commissioned by a then-famous software company to conduct a study meant to help recruit new talent. The psychologists interviewed 1,378 programmers to create a profile of the candidates most likely to be “successful”.
They concluded that apart from liking problem solving, puzzles and math, happy software engineers “don’t like people” and “are often egocentric, slightly neurotic”, bordering on “limited schizophrenia”. They also noted “high incidence of beards, sandals, and other symptoms of rugged individualism or nonconformity”. The study basically established the stereotype of the programming nerd that persists today. The glaring problem with their research? Only 186 of the subjects surveyed were women.
Companies relied on the study for decades when recruiting employees, ensuring a decades-long gender imbalance. And that was only the beginning.
Chang’s article goes on to detail all the ways in which the current gender imbalance in Silicon Valley is anything but natural. Definitely worth a read.
