Finally, some good news on women in tech

Joanna Parke knew ThoughtWorks didn't have enough women in technology jobs when she hired on 12 years ago. Instead of wringing her hands, the company's North American managing director rolled up her sleeves. Today a third of the Chicago-based tech consulting firm's technical staff are women, nearly double the percentage of five years ago.

The share of women easily tops that at tech giants like Google and Facebook or Chicago's Groupon. Shamed into reporting the demographics of their workforces recently, they revealed that less than 20 percent of their tech jobs were held by women. Though the rate may be higher at smaller places, the relative success at ThoughtWorks raises a question: If it can find and retain female software developers, what excuse do the tech sector's leaders have? The most common reason tech companies give for their lack of diversity is that not enough women are entering the field. Just 18 percent of computer-science majors are women, according to federal data. While the pool of potential female hires is smaller, Andee Harris, a senior vice president at Syndio, a Chicago-based business consultancy, blames the industry's fraternity house culture for pushing women away. “The whole notion of having less women in the workforce is not true,” says Harris, a former coder who got her start at Accenture and spent 20 years in the Chicago tech community. “There are plenty of women. It's a matter of 'can women thrive in their culture?' ”