The panelists at this session all work for organizations or on projects that aim to attract girls to math, science, and technology and then retain them in math/science/tech professions once they become women. They were mostly preaching to the choir, and I didn’t hear much I didn’t already know: girls begin to lose interest in math and science in middle school; most kids don’t really understand what careers in science and technology are like and so they think they wouldn’t want to have them; mentors make a big difference in retention and morale.

For me the most exciting part of the session was to see that J Strother Moore, the Chair of UT Austin’s Computer Science Department (one of the 10 biggest CS departments in the country), is an old white guy who is very invested in recruiting women to his department, improving their experiences once they get there, and helping them go on to have satisfying careers in Computer Science after they leave. He clearly has a good grasp of the problems and challenges that women face in his field, and his ability to speak frankly about those things, and his evident dedication to fixing them, gave me hope.

Favorite moment: During the Q&A section, a young CS professor asked what he can do to support the only two girls in his programming class.

Dr. Moore’s answer: “Don’t hit on them.”

Exactly.