Gender Equity

In “The Gender Gap Goes High Tech” (Aug. 25) we learn that part of the shortage of high-tech workers is due to the lack of women, and to cover the shortfall we are bringing in more foreigners. The irony is that foreign high-tech workers are predominantly male. Importing male talent is exacerbating the problem. Not only because this shifts the balance away from gender equity, but with fewer women as role models in the field, this leads to a vicious spiral. Furthermore, the gender-role attitudes which hurt women in this field are often more strongly held by the foreigners we bring in. We’ve been importing 65,000 high-tech worker a year.

The only way I see to remedy this is to apply strict gender quotas on high-tech work visas. We have no direct influence on the gender makeup of training programs in foreign countries. We do have control over who we’ll allow in to this most desirable work market. Our country is contemplating increasing the high-tech foreign work visas by 50,000 per year. Now is the time to push legislation that will enforce gender equity in these visas.

ROBERT WEVERKA

San Mateo