Zuckerberg's Advice For Young Women: Be The Nerd, Don't Date The Nerd

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Recent reports show there are fewer women than are men pursuing an education in science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM.

But new dad Mark Zuckerberg has some advice for young women, and the Facebook founder's response to a grandmothers comment has gone viral.

Zuckerberg was responding to a comment on his post about his personal challenge for 2016, building an artificial intelligence system for his home. A grandmother wrote she tells her granddaughters to "date the nerd in school" because he might turn out to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.

Eighteen minutes later, the Facebook cofounder replied, "Even better would be to encourage them to *be* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor."

The comment went viral with over 30,000 "likes" on Facebook.

Tracey Welson-Rossman is the Founder of TechGirlz -- a local nonprofit dedicated to reducing the gender gap in technology occupations:

"I love the fact that he is out there really saying to girls 'yeah you can date the nerd but be the nerd, be the person who is technichal, be your own person and not dependent on a man'."

Facebook and other tech companies have stepped up efforts to attract and retain women, but Welson-Rossman says it's going to take time:

"One of the things we talk about at Techgirlz is that this is not a short race, we are talking about signicant cultural changes in the tech industry and in the workforce and it doesnt happen overnight."

Change has been slow at Zuckerberg's own company. Nearly seven out of ten employees at Facebook are men and just 16% of its tech workers and 23% of senior leadership are women.