If you’ve kept up with my blog so far, you probably know that I have an almost three year old daughter and a background in psychology. Studying the human mind and why people are the way that they are kind of made me terrified of becoming a parent myself. Even though I theoretically know the most up to date and scientifically backed methods of parenting, I’m also acutely aware of the potential consequences of seemingly inane things – like how something as simple as saying I’m bad at math can affect my daughter’s learning of it. I’m actually really good at math, but studies like the ones referenced in that article have made abundantly clear to me the importance of young girls seeing women have positive relationships with STEM subjects that are male dominated.

I do my best to expose my daughter to strong female role models and to empower her to do whatever she wants. We read books like ABC What Can She Be, She Persisted, and A is for Awesome: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World. Right now, when she grows up she either wants to be an astronaut or Rafiki from The Lion King, so I guess things are going pretty well. Most of the names in these books are repeated pretty frequently; you can’t have a book about historically important women without mentioning Emmeline Pankhurst, Margaret Thatcher, and Ada Lovelace.

Obviously my girls Ada and Grace Hopper are the ones I try to steer my daughter to without showing too much bias. (Fun fact: Ada Lovelace is actually Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron) In a field that is still dominated by men, it’s nice to know that the first programmer was actually a woman and see huge strides in the profession from other women like Grace Hopper.

Part of my reasoning for pursuing a computer science degree was to prove to myself and my daughter that I could and to be a stronger role model for her. I was in a career in a field that typically consists of women, that was interesting and allowed me to help others but completely drained me physically and emotionally and didn’t pay well enough to make up for it. Stepping away from what I knew and was good at was difficult, but it has made space for me to grow somewhere else. Only about 20% of computer science undergraduate degrees go to women, according to this article from Scientific American, and I’m excited to soon be one of them and hopefully spark and nurture the interest in my daughter as well.