en in
Recruitment and Retention
EM
Giti Javidi, Ph.D., is used to feeling like the odd man
– or woman – out.
Throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies in computer science, Giti was often the lone
woman in class. Familiar feelings of isolation followed Giti throughout her career and continued as
she was the only female faculty member in computer science at Virginia State University’s College
of Engineering for 11 years. In August 2016, she joined the College of Business at University of
South Florida (USF) Sarasota-Manatee as assistant professor of information technology.
Giti’s story might sound familiar. Indicated by the countless organizations dedicated to increasing
the number of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, technical
roles are still largely male dominated. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor reported women
represented just 26 percent of the STEM workforce. While this data also shows a significant
increase from just 7 percent in 1970, there is clearly still work to be done.
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