Women missing out on lucrative careers in computer science

The stubbornly low number of female computer science students in the United States has generated a pile of academic studies, ample hand-wringing and a wide-ranging discussion in tech and education circles about what can be done to boost the number of women choosing computing careers. All of which raises a fair question: What difference does it make if women don't join the tech workforce in the same numbers that men do? It turns out it makes a huge difference. The dearth of women in computing has the potential to slow the US economy, which needs more students in the pipeline to feed its need for more programmers. It harms women by excluding them from some of the best jobs in the country. And it damages US companies, which studies show would benefit from more diverse teams.