The gender gap in computer science is widening, with a new Cornell University study showing that it won’t be solved until at least the year 2100.
After 30 years in the industry, that doesn’t surprise Penny Garbus.
“It’s hard to work 12- to 15-hour days,” she said. “I lived it, I did it, and I raised 4 kids.”
Garbus is president and co-founder of Soaring Eagle Database Consulting based in Apollo Beach. The $5.2 million firm, founded in 1997 by Garbus and her husband, Jeffrey, continues to grow with a client list of 45 businesses ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in healthcare, financial institutions, retail and more.
“Anybody who cares about their database, we can help,” she said.
What is a database? It depends on the client. Banks or financial institutions, for example, keep people’s personal credit information. Hospitals or doctors' offices need to protect the personal healthcare records of patients for HIPPA compliance. A retail store needs to make sure that purchasing and inventory details are secure.
“We make sure the data is encrypted or masked, and that they’re using the proper strategies,” she said.
Soaring Eagle’s niche is its custom web interface, called Soaring Eagle Flight Center, so named from her husband’s hobby as a pilot. The interface automatically tracks the performance of each clients’ database to ensure the systems are optimally functioning so that the team can identify and fix a problem before it becomes a nightmare.
At this point, Soaring Eagle has 15 employees, and including Garbus, just 3 of them are women. The challenge, she said, is that of the 40 to 50 applications she receives for a new position, only about two are female candidates. That’s tough, since the company has a goal of adding a new technologist every 6 weeks or so as they look to meet demand for their product.
Nationally, the rate of women in computer science positions has dropped from 29 percent in 1998 to 21 percent in 2017, according to the National Center for Women in Technology, or NCWIT.
But the pipeline is getting thinner, with less than a fifth of all undergraduate computer and information bachelor’s degrees held by women.
Garbus feels it, as it is typically just a matter of time before female hires “leapfrog” to larger companies.
“Every woman we’ve hired was fabulous and they end up going up like 2 levels,” faster than a man, she said. “They have that perspective” that is particularly valuable in a management role.
Garbus has several strategies in mind for filling the gender divide. While the industry has made great strides in eliminating sexual harassment that she dealt with early in her career, it now needs to do a better job at encouraging a work-life balance.
Overall in the industry, when a problem arises the team will work around the clock until the problem is solved. Companies instead can adjust their staffing and create a process so that the problem can be passed off to another team so that the first can rest, Garbus said.
Ultimately though, “it’s a community effect,” Garbus said. “We have to support girls in our own worlds.”
She’s proud to add that her 23-year-old daughter now works as a lead database administrator for a Central Florida furniture company.
