By Sylvia Carr, 14 May 2004 17:10
NEWS Despite efforts to increase the number of women working in IT, the gender gap has only got wider in the industry.
Women hold a mere 19 per cent of IT jobs, according to research conducted by professional services company Parity Group.
That number is in line with silicon.com's own 2004 Skills Survey, which revealed that about 1 in 8 (or 12.5 per cent) of tech jobs are held by women.
Of the women who do chose to brave the male-dominated tech world - about 19 per cent of the total UK population - a majority (60 per cent) choose project management roles over more technical positions such as programming, design or development.
Along with being outnumbered, women earn significantly less than their male counterparts. Male project managers earn on average £71.90 per hour while females make £37.31, based on the 200 people surveyed by Parity.
Of those female project managers, most have job titles at the lower end of the hierarchy, meaning they're more involved with coordination and administration than with making technical and business decisions.
So what's going on?
The many recent initiatives to increase women's role in IT, such as school programmes that try to get girls involved in math and science and organisations that promote networking among women in tech, aren't working. Stewart Coia, director of HCM practices at Parity, says companies that want to attract and retain women in IT roles need to take a different approach.
Women, who often bear more family responsibilities than men, are thought to value flexibility in the workplace.
Coia says: "If companies can offer benefits like flexible hours and [the ability to work from] a variety of locations, it will entice women into IT." These are things that are often missing in the upper echelons of IT positions.
Tech companies that don't pursue female workers will arguably find themselves with increasingly unbalanced teams.
In the end, says Coia, IT is "wasting a tremendous resource. A large number of university graduates are women, but only a small percentage is going to the top in IT". That means they're going into other industries - and IT's could be missing out on a major portion of the educated population.
Comments
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1. Jim
Has anyone ever considerd that maby not that meny women actually want to work in IT?
I'm not trying to be sexist etc. but we do live in a society where the individual can decide what he/or she wants to do, don't we?
2. nigel perry
I find laughable the politically correct assumption that women and men have the same aspirations or that something must be wrong if you don't have similar numbers doing a given task. Is it right to try to brainwash women into doing things they don't like? You will find that higher male earnings are down to the married men - bachelor and female earnings are similar - can you work that one out? It would be nice if you could persuade some more women to write IT manuals though - it might improve literacy and user friendliness!
3. Stephen Phillips
I get sick and tired of this Women outnumbered in IT debate, as if it is men that are stopping them. I do not know a single women that when the subject of Computers comes up does not immediately say something like "Oh Computers, how boring". The simple answer to this "problem" is that men outnumber women because most women simply do not want the job!
4. anonymous
I am female with a family of school age and work for a large organisation that has a better than average number of women working in IT. It is true that there are a lack of women in the higher levels of technical jobs within this organisation - they tend to go for management roles because they tend to be based more at one centre. One of the real issues is that if you want a high level technical job within this company then you need to go where the job is rather than where you base location may be. Some of the architects that I work with have to stay in hotels all week as they travel about the country for meetings with customers and suppliers. I am not in a position to be able to have that mobility with my family requirements/commitments. Using tele-conferencing/video conferencing is not always an option in my line of work - meetings require to be face to face.
5. anonymous
As a technical woman who has worked working in IT for nearly 2 decades it is very obvious why women leave the industry. It is still very sexist.
When I was younger there was a very prevalent view in one company I (briefly) worked for that you couldn't be a 'real' engineer if you wore make-up !
I have my technical judgement questioned far more than if I was a man (I am highly technical but also have good interpersonal skills). I have often been asked to take the technical lead but to let the company pretend to have a middleaged white man as technical lead to the customer (this has happened to me in more than one company but I have never seen a male colleague in the same position).
I now refuse to do this under any circumstances.
Frankly as a woman you need to be more than a little bolshy to stick it out. I've oftened wondered whether it is worth it and if I wouldn't prefer a job in marketing or something where I wouldn't have to keep proving myself. I stay because I have built up a lot of expertise.
Despite liking my job and still finding technology interesting if I had a daughter I would strongly advise her against going into technology because I would not want to see her have to battle her way through. If I were starting again I would definitely chose another career path......
I am putting this in anonymously because we are now at a stage where companies think there are no problems and if you suggest otherwise you are the problem !
6. anonymous
1. Female "persuasion" is a misnomer, even with the modern gender reassignment services that are available!
2. Women have less testosterone than men, so generally tend to be less aggressive about everything they do. In the many IT departments I have worked with, exceptions to this are rare. Though women compensate in ome areas by using other skills, this is a factor which I believe influences their ability currently compete (fight?) with the male sex in promotion and salary negotiations.
3. Women seem to be less able to offer out-of-hours working "on site". In an IT department, this is a key occasional requirement and sometimes notice is somewhat short! I suspect that this usually falls to male members of staff not because of competence or committment to the work, but rather due to how family lives outside work are arranged.
4. Employers STILL consider employing a woman to be a riskier choice then her male counterpart. It is difficult as a manager to discount important scenarios affecting productivity, and therefore difficult not to wonder "what happens when my #1 infrastructure engineer takes 2 months off when she is pregnant?".
The last one is easy to solve - give men the same rights and benefits as women when having a child, then there would be no advantage for men when competing for employment. Removing this key advantage for men will be far more effective than simply legislating that prospective employers should acknowledge it but not take it into account!
7. anonymous
Anyone who joins IT at this stage (of either gender) needs their head examining.
Maybe women saw the current disaster earlier then men. Maybe they just didn't want to want with the not-too-bright men who have posted above. (Hint: Jim you ARE a sexist - and stupid.)
8. anonymous
As an IT employer dedicated to equal opportunities(I am an engineering female for the last xx years)I give every oportunity to all staff and probably more to the females but
Equal opportunitiies Equal pain and mostly they are not prepared for the slog, dedication and application needed for the techie side. Being a 'soft' side Project manager admin person seems to be what they want
9. Jennifer
"The many recent initiatives to increase women's role in IT, such as school programmes that try to get girls involved in math and science and organisations that promote networking among women in tech, aren't working"
How do we know?! The students affected by these programmes probably haven't even started university yet, let alone started looking for jobs in IT and elsewhere. As a female graduate with a computer science degree I don't want to work in IT because I find programming boring and there aren't entry-level management or documentation jobs. I'm sure I'm not the only one put off by that. Give us a chance and we'll work for you..
10. Sally
I am graduating in June 2004, with a computing degree expected 1st or 2.1 and I have not been put off by IT/computing and techie subjects - I love it! Unlike Jennifer I DO want to work in IT and am having interviews but, am unsure how to respond. I am 30 something, I already have my family(but I am willing to relocate for a career)I had my family before going to university and now feel I am judged against my Age - should we employ her - she will want time off to have a baby, else,If I say I already have a family, 'this relates to time off for the children'. Is this really a no win situation?? I feel that for any other career this would not be a problem...NOW I dont mention family/children - and let them draw their own conclusions
11. anonymous
I donnot see the relavance of this article. If I donnot want to go for a certain career path, I won't, but for my own reasons, not politics.
12. Sarah
Like the lady from Berkshire, I too have over 2 decades of experience (mainly technical and technical management) in the IT industry.
As she says, you do need to be a little boltchy to get noticed and yet when you do, a lot of the men I have worked with at a senior level cannot handle this and regard you as too agressive. We can't win! Funnily enough the same approach with women, in my experience, rarely does not elicit the same reaction. Maybe therein lies the problem ..... (and not just in IT).
13. Caroline
I have been teaching ICT for 16 years and for the first 10 years I never taught one female. I'm currently teaching now in a school and things are slightly better but not much.
The problem starts early (at school) by girls not selecting ICT as an option and research into this area for my Info. Systems degree dissertation showed these were some of the reasons:
1. Still seen as a boys subject
2. computer games still heavily biased towards male traits (war games etc)
3. Magazines etc still portray males as the serious computer users while females are used to draw attention to the equipment or service on offer. So therefore not thought of as serious users.
4. Too few female role models in higher level ICT teaching.
Contributing factors later on:
1. working hours are still not flexible enough when women are balancing home commitments
2. ICT jobs are still mainly using male descriptive words in their advertising and therefore not attracting females to even apply for the post.
And from my experience when dealing with IT issues - the conversation is always directed at my husband (who sells concrete) and its nearly always assumed that I will know nothing about computing.
14. anonymous
A year ago we had apparently had such a shortage of IT staff we were giving work permits to anyone who could spell C++ so something doesn't add up.
Surely if there were really a shortage of experienced IT labour employers would have encouraged females and the disabled into IT?
My female colleague is more than capable & hardworking, so sorry Jim etc. you obviously have the wrong impression (or they don't want to offend you with their superior knowledge).
15. anonymous
I've been programming for four years, and I love the job. I don't find it boring, OR difficult, and I find the logic aspect of it fascinating. But when I first started, a male colleague actually asked me "What do you want to do this for? I mean, you're a girl, and this involves maths!" Yeah.....
Even now, despite the fact that I am on precisely the same level as my colleagues technically and in terms of experience, I am generally treated as the teams most junior member; I get passed over for the most interesting project work unless I lobby hard and push my qualifications to management, and then if I do that I put off my colleagues because I'm being "too aggressive." I think one of the previous comments is right, you just can't win.
I don't think it's a matter of not enough testosterone or aggression to compete. But people aren't comfortable with me if I do "get pushy." There *IS* a lot of sexist bs going around. I can't think of any career I'd rather have, but frankly, if anyone were less convinced about that I could see them going for something with less aggro.
16. anonymous
I'm a female trying to get back into I.T. after family break without success. Alas I'm also in my late forties
17. Karenza Moore
Hi 'Anon' from 'South'. We are running a 'Women in IT' project at the Uni of Salford, and are particularly interesting in talking to women returners. If you are interested in telling us your story, please contact me at k.moore@salford.ac.uk. This invitation applies to any women involved in the IT industry in England. Thank-you. Dr K. Moore
18. anonymous
In my opinion many woman leave the field because they become fustrated with getting paid less for the same job a man is doing. Why bust your tail if you are not getting paid what you deserve.
19. anonymous
I think if anyone takes the time to read through all the various comments posted they will see the same story emerging again and again.
Women in IT are treated as inferior by the majority of male workers because many men feel threatened by a technically capable female. I have worked in Technical IT support & programming for more than 20 years and when I first started, employers were just grateful to employ anyone who had the required knowledge regardless of their gender.
These days I find that situation has greatly changed, over the past 10 years I have seen a very sexist and ageist attitude develop in IT which means that now I am fighting a loosing battle being both female and in my late forties.
Almost all the [openly] men who have posted comments here have made sexist and stupid remarks designed to make themselves feel superior. Unfortunately this type of attitude is very contagious in what is now a male dominated industry so that the "all lads together" syndrome means that women in IT are usually only given projects which involve administration and paperwork but not decisions or hands on expertise. I for one shall be very happy to reach retirement, as I am tired of being seen as the "bolshie" female cause of a problem when I request involvement in technical IT aspects.
20. anonymous
I am a woman returner who has been trying in vain to return to the IT industry for a long time now. I have supposedly sought after Oracle skills albeit a couple of versions out of date. I have a daughter who shines at maths and science but I will be doing my best to dissuade her from entering IT as once you jump off the treadmill you can't get back on. It certainly doesn't help being female and over 40.