Can Robots Help Get More Girls Into Science and Tech?

Here's a depressing number for you: 12. Just 12 percent of engineers in the United States are women. In computing it's a bit better, where women make up 26 percent of the workforce--but that number has actually fallen from 35 percent in 1990. The United States has a serious problem with getting women into STEM jobs and keeping them there. Silicon Valley and other employers bear the most responsibility for that: Discrimination, both overt and subtle, works to keep women out of the workforce. But this society of ours also perpetuates gender stereotypes, which parents pass on to their kids.