By Natasha Lomas, 26 November 2009 11:57
NEWS
The lack of women in IT is bad news for the industry and while the tech world doesn't discriminate against them, it does have an image problem that is off-putting to females, according to silicon.com's exclusive 2009 Skills Survey.
The majority (51 per cent) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed the lack of women in IT is bad for the industry, slightly down on 2008 when 54 per cent held that view. The same proportion (51 per cent) believes the image of IT is off-putting to women, down one percentage point on last year.
That women are underrepresented in the IT industry is well documented: male IT workers greatly outnumber females in the UK workforce according to IT sector skills body e-skills UK which calculates that less than a quarter (23 per cent) of the UK's tech workforce is female.
"Whilst employment in IT professional occupations has more than doubled since the early 1990s, the representation of females within IT occupations has steadily declined," e-skills UK notes. Across the UK's general working population, women make up almost half (45 per cent) of the workforce - close to double the proportion of women working in IT.
But asked whether the IT industry discriminates against women, 42 per cent of respondents to this year's silicon.com Skills Survey disagreed or strongly disagreed the tech world is sexist - down slightly on last year when 44 per cent held that view.
Image credit: Natasha Lomas/silicon.com
However a different story emerges when the results are broken down by gender, with close to half (47.5 per cent) of female respondents this year convinced the tech industry is sexist - up from 41 per cent in 2008.
This is compared to under a quarter (24.5 per cent) of men who agreed or strongly agreed that women in IT are discriminated against.
Both sexes agreed or strongly agreed the lack of women in IT is bad news for the industry, however - though unsurprisingly a significantly larger proportion of women held this view than men (70 per cent, versus 49 per cent).
Image credits: Natasha Lomas/silicon.com
The two genders also agreed that the image of IT is off-putting to women, with 57.5 per cent of women agreeing or strongly agreeing with this view, along with 51 per cent of men.
Asked whether CIOs should use positive discrimination to ramp up the numbers of women in IT, the majority (55.5 per cent) of survey respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the measure. Male respondents were even more opposed to positive discrimination than women, with 59 per cent of men rejecting it.
But while a quarter of female respondents also rejected it, the largest proportion (42.5 per cent) were in favour or strongly in favour of CIOs using positive discrimination to close IT's gender gap.
The importance of flexible working to making IT a more female-friendly profession was also evident in the survey results. The majority (52.5 per cent) of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that more flexible working would increase the numbers of female techies. The same proportion of male respondents held that view, along with an even bigger proportion (62.5 per cent) of female respondents.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Psyon King
Forgive me if I step on a few toes, or feet for that matter, but.. In this article, it is repeatedly said... "lack of females is bad for the IT industry"....UMMM.... how so!? Do females have the feminine touch that can soothe the pains of the servers etc? I think this is all PC gone overboard.. Regardless, male or female, it would not make any difference to the workings of the IT industry..
2. anonymous
I run an IT business that definitely does not discriminate, if anything we have possibly more women than men in senior positions. At the last calculation the average pay of the women was slightly higher than that of the men, but we still have fewer women about 35%. The reason is simple there are almost no candidates when it comes to technical roles and that side of our business is dominated by men. We can't recruit women for these roles because they don't even appear as candidates.
3. karen challinor
whilst I would like more women in IT and certainly equal pay for women in IT
I am totally against the idea of positive discrimination
selecting a one candidate over another based on their gender, race, creed, sexual orientation, physical ability or age is only positive discrimination for the candidate selected, for the rest it's just discrimination
pick the best available person for the job based upon their skillset and nothing more and you will staff your company with the best people, what is wrong with that ?
start discriminating based on attributes that are nothing to do with the work at hand and your company will suffer
4. anonymous
Hi
I have been in IT for now 15 years.
Originally I was a techie working as a desktop support, server support, infrastructure designer etc... Last 4 years I have been working as a Project Manager
Though I made a very good progress in my own Company, no other employer wanted to employ me until I became PM. Somehow I felt that woman techies are not to be trusted. I sometimes did not make to eth interview even when I had essential and desired experience.
As a Project Manager I seem to be able to get many more interviewes and offers. I dont think it is anything to do with my improved verbal or written skills- I use the same updated CV.
I think it is somehow more acceptable to see a women as a Project Manager than infrastructure designer or server/domain administrator.
And yes discrimination is ripe within the rows of techies... But it seems to me that they sometimes do not notice that they are being discriminatory. More education is needed
5. Antonia Bradford
I don't think that these views reflect the real world of work.
I am a woman, have worked in IT for the last 20 years, first in Academia, but for the last 15 years in Industry. I have never found the 'IT image' offputting, threatening or intimidating. I have never felt I had been relegated to favour a male colleague, patronised or in any way looked down because I was a woman.
I am not particularly stroppy, and definitely not agressive; if I have something to say I will say it, but in the most constructive way possible.
6. Henry
The more the technology is overly complicated and away from the users and the programmers the less it will be adopted. Steve Jobs seems to have figured some of this out so maybe the rest of us need to change our way of thinking. The Left Brain way is not always the best way. It is a catch 22 though as we do need more women and left handed men but then the technology and the education would be different. To this day education is still based on the left brain male model but we now know this is not the right way. Einstein once said the definition of insanity is changing nothing but expecting a different result.
7. ash
Totally agree about choosing the best person for the job, but people need to clear their mind of prejudices before choosing