The increasing number of unfilled job positions in today's computer industry makes the situation all the more urgent. The ACM-W is urging the government to devote significant resources to attracting more students to computer science, especially underrepresented groups such as women.
Women offer a great resource and an excellent pool of potential future computer scientists.
Over the last ten years, the number of women graduating with Bachelor's degrees in computer science from United States universities has dramatically decreased and is continuing to do so. By contrast other sciences have all seen increasing percentages of women. ACM-W wants to counteract the many factors that contribute to the declining numbers of women in computer science. The middle school years are particularly critical to the education process, a time when many girls drop out of math and science. In addition, girls don't see scientists as people having lives outside of their work and they don't see science as having a significant impact on society.