By Steve Ranger, 18 January 2007 16:40
NEWS
The number of women choosing careers in IT continues to decline, with many put off by the long-hours culture and lack of flexible working.
Most damaging for the industry is the increasing number of experienced senior female execs that are abandoning technology. As these women in their 40s leave IT behind, they take with them vital experience and contacts, and also reduce the number of role models and mentors available for younger women in IT.
According to Carrie Hartnell, programme manager at industry trade group Intellect, only 16 per cent of tech workers are women, and even that meagre number is a drop from 18 per cent a couple of years ago.
And it's getting worse, she warned, which is "a very worrying statistic".
She added: "It's important to have diversity in the workforce."
Out of that 16 per cent, more than half (61 per cent) are at the database administrator level, which means few women are making it up the management ladder.
Hartnell told silicon.com: "From the research we've done there is still a feeling that the long-hours culture and the lack of understanding about flexible working has an impact."
As a result Intellect is asking members of the IT industry to participate in research examining the culture of their workplace and their career experiences.
Using the results of the research Intellect intends to create an 'action plan' to improve diversity in the sector. Focus groups will also be held to spot ways for companies to develop policies to help them recognise good practice within their own company and others.
Comments
There are 25 comments. Join the discussion
1. M. Todd
Having a thick skin is an absolute requirement for a female looking to enter the IT arena. I find myself having to prove myself (even after 8 years with the company) to engineers and other male counterparts. Every chance they get at placing the blame on the "IT" department they run with it. I have learned to accept it as a challenge to keep myself in tip top shape and have the good reputation I have. I actually thank them for being the "jerks" for they keep me ahead of the game.
2. anonymous
It doesn't matter if ALL women abandon tech jobs.
3. Brian
Okay, let's see if we've got this straight.
Women are bitching about the lack of working schedule flexibility and the long hours that are required for their jobs within the IT sector. And then the femi-nazi analysts wonder why women aren't moving up the IT management food chain.
How about some balance in your 'journalism' instead of jumping on the "poor oppressed women" bandwagon.
I have absolutely no sympathy for whiners who don't 'make management' when they can't perform the job that's required of them. MEN have been doing it for years. THAT is why men move up the food chain - because they're willing to put in the 'above-and-beyond' effort that's expected of 'management material'.
I've worked with a few women who have had that drive, and I've seen them rewarded the same as any man. But I've also worked with MANY women who aren't prepared to 'do what it takes' - and as such they most certainly were not deserving of moving up.
The drivel about 'diversity in the workforce' is nothing more than mindless rhetoric. White, black, asian or eskimo, male or female, short or tall -- who cares! What's needed in ANY workforce is intelligence, competence, and commitment to do the job. Period. So if the women can't cut the hours, the stress, or the 'gearhead culture', then get out and make room for those who CAN.
4. Robert Barton
There are much 'easier' jobs and much better paid eg. doctors, lawyers, accountants...
Guess where women are going...
Maybe just smarter?
5. Amanda Lorenzani
The previous comment is exemplary in that it highlights exactly the reason more women aren't attracted to the tech sector ;-D
6. Mikal Dunne
My IT Dept is quite flexible on hours within reason and we have about a third of first/second level being female staff. Sadly such opportunities are being lost due to our parent company moving all transactional work to the main office in the USA even though we are global with all the different business and cultural demands this entails. So women wanting a foot in the door at least in my place of employment no longer have the opportunity.
7. Andrew Meredith
Maybe the women who don't jump through hoops for the company, realise that the concept of 'going above and beyond' has been obsoleted by the bean counter culture that sprung up in the late 80s and seems to be sticking around.
What is the point of 'going the extra mile' in order to garner some brownie points if the only thing that has any effect on your continued employment it the flat bottom line numbers. If you cost more, you're out.
It's not just the IT department that suffers from this disease. If your "company motto" is laughably at odds with reality, but the management act like it is the gospel truth to the exclusion of logic then you are suffering from it to. This is the kind of logic that goes "X is true cos it's company policy" "The customers are complaining about something that would infer that X is not true" "But X is true so they are just making trouble" Solution, flip off the customers.
Thankfully, in the long run, the Darwinian Principle will see them off.
8. Amanda Lorenzani
I was refering to "OK, let's see if we've got this straight..." to avoid confusion...
9. Charles Smith
People choose to do IT jobs. It looks as though women are being smart in not taking the IT jobs. They won't suffer having their jobs exported. The won't have tobe expected to work long hours of unpaid overtime by myopic management.
10. anonymous
A few years back I was informed by the IT manager that a new position of Deputy Manager was being formed, and it was being given to my male colleague.
When I queried why this was the first I had heard of this, and why the position was going to the less experienced person, he replied "I assumed you wouldn't want it."
This depite the fact that I had been doing most of the job for the previous 2 years.
The new deputy was quite upset when he found that I no longer felt the need to do what was now his job, and he would actually have to work for his increased pay and rank.
11. Bob
The article does not go on to tell us what all these 40 year old female execs go on to do after they have left the IT sector.
Is it possible that many are simply doing what we are continually being told IT Managers and CIOs must do - become more aligned with the business and aspire to the big chair?
Also absent is any analysis of why men are apparently willing to do what it is claimed that women are not.
12. anonymous
Maybe the other women are like me in that we have more to our lives than just sitting in the office for umpteen hours a day. I'm on a shortish-term plan to get out - 2 years tops - because I find other environments and people more interesting. And the delay's only for cross-training.
Or maybe there's something wrong with me that I think I shouldn't be expected to check my Blackberry regularly when I've got days off work to have a life?
I would also be curious to know how many of these "men" posting here (I use the term advisedly) actually pull their weight around the house rather than claiming that they've had a hard day, why should they help? Obviously they think we girlies should all stick to the cooking & cleaning whilst they get on with being competitive morons who spend more time beating their chests and talking about games consoles when their managers aren't around. It's just such a charming environment to work in. Our colleagues have no lives, no personalities, no conversation, and yet WE'RE the lightweights for having the judgement to get away from them and out the door???
13. mr progressive
Ugg Brian, back to the stone age with you...good management isn't just about macho bullsh*t, survival of the fittest etc, it's about having good organisational, communication and leadership skills...just as rare amongst men as it is amongst women. Women are probably abandoning IT because of PEOPLE LIKE YOU being in charge.
14. Sane Male
Believe it or not, many MEN value things like flexible hours, time with family, reasonable goals, and a collegial atmosphere. The "hard drivers" belittle us just like they belittle women. In the short run, they appear to be more successful. But the laugh is on them, because (on the average) we live longer, have better marriages, and produce more children. We will bury you!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
15. anonymous
Yup. People (men AND women) don't really leave bad jobs - they leave bad management.
16. anonymous
Back to Brian "Okay, let's see if we've got this straight" . Maybe in your little small minded world everything is black and white, but in the real world! females opt out of the 'secure' jobs to go freelancing since the first question that's asked in any management related role is " what are my plans in terms of family and how will it affect my role". Also, even in the environment, whenever a minor flexibility is required, one cannot ignore the male sniggers at the coffee machines whether "she's trading sexual favours for a bit of flexibility" ! maybe you've got a family! but who cares! The fact that one's got breasts and a womb is seriuosly detrimental in the IT industry!
Somehow I don't think a bloke's interview question will question his loyalty for golf or fishing!
Brian, you have a lot of learn about Women in the IT sector mate!
17. anonymous
Database Administrators are very rarely women apparently because it involves large amounts of out of hours work, maths, sql and programming.
I'll try to encourage women to write shell/sql scripts etc., as it's the only way to learn, but they actively seek out phone/email type work. Only men seem to want to be technical.
Anyway, I wish they were, but I don't think your stats can be right - unless you have the wrong idea of what a database administrator is.
18. john foster
I have never understood the fuss about this topic and the need for government intervention. In this enlightened age why can´t women (and men) choose the career they want.
19. gw
Of course women are abandoning it. Lots of people are abandoning tech jobs. Why? Because of corporations abandoning the American workers. Corporations are still offshoring jobs to India and China. There is no evidence that there is going to be a turnaround. What the heck did you expect? You - YOU - created this situation, and now you act surprised. Gimme a break.
20. anonymous
I think one of the biggest reasons women are leaving IT is because of the way they are treated. It has never failed that I have blown other male students out of the water in various computer science classes, but I put up with constant harassment and put-downs. After four years, I've learned to deal with it but it makes me question why I put up with the comments from people that clearly don't have the motivation or the skills to be better than I am.
21. Dr. H.R.J. Grosch
You focus on the working stuff like glass ceilings and pregnancy leave. but there's more to it than that. It's now a sterile, even a dumb way to make a living. I'm the senior figure worldwide in the use of computers, dating from 1936, and I had great women working with me from 1945 to 1986. The Golden Years of mainframes [1950/70]were exciting to them and to males; the Windows era is Dullsville.
Herb Grosch
22. Rebecca Hoover
I can see why the previous commenter was afraid to post his name and hid under Anonymous. Not very courageous.
23. V. O'Halloran
I am a woman working in the IT field and I agree -- no one should expect the work place to conform to your lifestyle -- you conform to your work place. If you are required to put in long hours, then do it. If you feel you can't (perhaps due to family obligations) then don't expect to move up the ladder and go get another job.
24. S. Martin
So lets get to the bottom line. Seems reasonable given we are talking about business practices.
Tech companies are going to demand long hours, inflexible work conditions and pay just enough to attract people to the work because there are people who are willing to put up with it.
For whatever demographic/psychological reason young men are the most willing to put up with the typical work conditions in the tech world. Women, and most family men find the work environment in these companies intolerable, so they leave.
Given the economic climate, these companies don't find it necessary to change their policies. Why should they, if you can find people willing to work this way, what possible motive would you have to change? Straight salaried employees working long boring hours. It's an employers dream.
So the status will remain quo until such time that the environment becomes so miserable that nobody wants the job. And by nobody I am including third world workers. I suspect we are many decades away from that event.
Is the situation completely intractable? I believe so, as long as there are alternatives for most women, there isn't any good reason for them to enter into this kind of high pain for small gain workforce.
25. Kay Banham
a harsh comment but with truth i can see.
lack of women in IT is nothing new they have been trying for years to bring more women in from a girls prospective your treated like shit, the hours are long and you work with lots of men. if you dont mind that then you will stay in IT like i have. but climbing up the ladder as been a long hard struggel i am sure that if i was a man, i would have made it by now, not that i am complaining
Kay