Women in Engineering: Is it easier to land an internship at Google as a female?

This is a really important and difficult question, and I recommend reading 's amazing book http://www.amazon.com/Lean-In-Women-Work-Will/dp/0385349947 for more on this. On the surface it seems like as women we are more likely to get offers because these software companies want to hire women, but there are a ton of other factors coming into play here, and I would claim that in the end it might be harder as a woman. First, even if affirmative action did get you the internship, affirmative action is not going to write your code for you or give you a returning offer. So even if affirmative action leads to an internship, it wouldn't make sense for Google to give offers to women with coding skills that were significantly worse then men's, because they wouldn't do well on the job. Gender stereotypes encourage women to be beautiful and nice, and are constantly at odds with the "brogrammer" culture which requires a ton of hard work and persistence to keep up with. Guys from a young age will find other friends interested in engineering/technology, and get to bounce ideas off one another an encourage each other. I didn't have a single (out of class) friend in math or computer science until sophomore year in college. There's also the problem that, because of personality, gender stereotypes, and other various reasons, we initially might not come across as rockstar engineers before we get the chance to prove ourselves. Society encourages women to be modest, leading us to not to show off our technical skills and accomplishments with as much confidence as men do. It's also intimidating to be the only female in large groups of men! I always feel like I stand out in those situations and am being judged, and this adds a ton of pressure. I think it takes a lot of confidence and self motivation to overcome this. I'm not sure if that answered your question, but with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes'_theorem I would claim that given that a female has made it this far to be qualified for a Google positions, she's already overcome other methods of self-selection that she probably has a higher than average chance of getting the offer.

I doubt it. (1) Google basically hires every qualified engineer they can (for full time positions). In order for it to be easier to get a job as a woman, then Google would have to be offering positions to women that they don't think are qualified. They don't want to hire people that aren't qualified. Bad employees are really expensive. (2) It's illegal. Gender cannot be used as a factor in hiring. Period. This doesn't mean people can't do it secretly, but it does make it less likely. They certainly can't hire women at a different rate by policy. (3) When I was on Google's hiring committee, I have never ever heard someone mention a candidate's gender. Frankly, it was like we weren't even looking at a person. (4) There is a significant subconscious bias against perceiving women as technical. When someone meets me (white, blonde, female) and hear that I worked at Google, they think "marketing" or "recruiting" not "engineering." You think this assumption that I'm less technical just vanishes when I say that I'm an engineer? No way. Even with some evidence presented that I'm a programmer (like, oh, talking about algorithms and data structures), many people will STILL think that I'm a recruiter. Ugh. This means that when a woman walks into an interview, she'll be assumed to be less technical. She will therefore have to fight harder to prove herself technical. Slip ups will be confirmation of her weaknesses, when a guy might be given the benefit of the doubt. (5) I've actually heard several people (who work for Facebook) say that they would prefer to hire a man if they were running a startup. They tell me that they think a guy would fit in better and they just can't think of many women who would be skilled enough and thus they'd be skeptical of any woman. Yeah, I know, depressing. Putting all these things together -- I think a woman probably has a harder time getting an offer. Google wouldn't (knowingly) hire unqualified women -- it's illegal and just doesn't make sense. And there's strong conscious and subconscious bias against hiring women.

Personally, I don't think it is easier to get an internship offer at any company solely based on your gender. Period. If it was, then I wouldn't want to work at that company. I want to work at a company that values me for what I bring to the table and because I'm qualified for the position, not because of my gender. While your question specifically names Google, my experience has been the same across the board for any company that I've interviewed at. I don't think the questions I've gotten have been any easier or harder than my male colleagues, at least from what I've gathered. In fact, when I cross check with them, sometimes we find that we've had the same questions. And no - they don't judge your answer less harshly. I've definitely bombed numerous interviews and, consequently of course, not received an offer as a result. I don't think it is easier to get an interview as a female (my sentiment for this subject is the same as what I've stated above). Logically, my view on this subject is that companies don't have a reason to hire you just because you're a woman if you're under qualified. If you can't do the work, I don't see why a company would pay you to sit there and cause more work for the other engineers. The gender ratio within employees isn't worth that much (or at least I don't think so!).

At least from what I've seen, yes. Firstly, it seems much easier to get an interview as a female. On many occasions, I've seen women without any work experience get interviewed when men with similar class experience but more work experience get turned down. Secondly, in all cases I've seen at my university, men have had two technical interviews before host matching starts, but women have had three. Since it is unlikely that Google would use this policy if it made it more difficult for women to receive internships, I think it is safe to conclude that this makes it easier. Thirdly, the women that I know who have had Google internships are on average not as intelligent as the men. Several of my friends who have worked at Google have confirmed this. Since having a high proportion of female engineers is a point of pride for tech companies, it is expected that Google would try to do more to encourage women to work there. However, it is disappointing that they seem to be using these sorts of tactics.

If there were only one open position, and there were a man and a woman with exactly the same qualification, they will hire the lady to increase diversity. As for the interviews, I think so. There is an unconscious bias against perceiving women as technical, and it's easier for a female to surprise the interviewer compare to a male. But, Google has numerous open positions and there is always much less qualified applicants. So, sufficiently qualified applicants of both genders will get an offer. The acceptance rate is just too low.

I don't work for Google, but I'm at a tech company that has a stated goal of recruiting a diverse workforce.    In the situations I've seen, your resume would probably be looked at more often than male resumes.  You might have more groups expressing interest, which could result in more interviews at the same company, with more chances to find the right fit.  (This is assuming that there's some incentive to the hiring groups to get "diversity candidates.") Does this mean you have an advantage getting hired?  It's hard to say since the interviewers still bring their own biases to the table and those may work for or  against you.  They will still need to see that you're competent, confident, and an interesting person to work with.

I have very little or no idea about women interns in Google but there certainly is a lack of women Googlers as only 30% of the company's overall employees are women. http://crayond.com/blog/every-3-in-10-google-employees-are-women/