BCS Edinburgh – 11th March 2009Heather Jackson.

Women in technology…

…what’s the problem?

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contents . . .

• Problem . . .

• Why???

• Actions

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the problem…the absence of the IT Girl

• 16% of the UK IT workforce are women

• 25% of computer science graduates were women in 2004

• 9% of IT development jobs are held by women

• 21% of computing graduates are female

• 18% of all IT grads were women

Trends show a worsening position . . .

• 26% of the US IT workforce are women

• 20% of the Australian IT workforce are women

Problem

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the problem…the exodus of the IT Girl

• UK - Since 2001, the number of female IT professionals has dropped 6%

• US - From 1990 to 2000 the number of women in the computing profession declined from 29% to 20%

• 76,000 fewer women work in IT than in 2006 than in 2000• 40% of all Computer Science graduates in the 1980s were women,

this is now below 20%

• Germany – From 1995 to 2000 the number of women embarking on an IT related degree declined from 16% to 10%

• Australia – From 2001 to 2007 the number of women enrolling in undergraduate studies in IT has declined from 24% to 18%

Problem

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the problem…the exodus is industry wideFinding of a 2007 study conducted by CIO Insight on statistics provided by the Bureau of Labor, US.

IT Employment: Then and Now

       

  % Women %

 200

6200

1Change

Managers 27.2 28.1 -3.2

Computer Scientists/Systems Analysts

31.9 34.0 -6.2

Computer Programmers 25.3 26.4 -4.2

Computer Software Engineers 21.7 24.5 -11.4

Computer Support Specialists 29.0 35.1 -17.4

Database Administrators 36.7 43.4 -15.4

Network/Computer Systems Administrators

16.7 23.4 -28.6

Network Systems/Data Communications Analysts

25.5 24.9 2.4

Problem

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the problem…the headlines

“What is it about - girls and IT?”Despite women being heavy users of IT why do they avoid studying it?” Financial Times, May 2008

“Women in IT paid 20 percent less than men”Zdnet.com, February 2008

Lack of women in IT is bad news for business performanceComputing.com, May 2008

“Less ‘geek’ more chic is the way forward”Lindsey  Armstrong of salesforce.com gives her prescription for raising the number of women in the industry.” Financial Times, May 2008

“Women must ask for pay rises to fight IT gender gap”Male IT staff currently earn an average of £720 a week, while female staff earn around £500.Computer Weekly, January 2009

“Women falling out of love with IT” Since 2001, the number of female IT professionals has dropped 6%. Computer Weekly, November 2008

Problem

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the emerging economies . . .

• Women now account for close to 30% of the total workforce in India’s IT industry – this figure is set to increase to 45% within the next two years

• Since 1991, Women have consistently constituted at least 50% of the student population in computer science at most universities, and a substantial part of the teaching faculty are women.

• The Malaysian software industry is comprised of 30% women

• 80-90% of the ICT faculty staff at Thai universities are female• Since 1996, there has been more women embarking on IT related

degrees than men.

Malaysia

India

Thailand

Problem

• The Brazilian software industry is comprised of 20% women

Brazil

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problem summary . . .

• Women are under represented in the IT workplace in the UK, Europe and North America

• More women are leaving IT than joining

• Many emerging nations have much higher proportion of women in IT and the trend is for this to increase rapidly

So why has the western world experience a decline in female participation in IT in contrast to emerging countries??

Problem

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male dominated . . .• IT perceived and portrayed as very ‘masculine’ in the

Western World.

• Computer related advertisements – male orientated

• “Old boys’ network”

• Social perception - “women and computers don’t mix. Men and computers do”

• The growth of this masculine perception over the past two decades has mirrored a decline in female participation

• In emerging countries such as Malaysia, there is a clear absence of the ‘male-association’ to computing. New, exiting and non-gender specific

IT and Computer culture has become synonymous with masculinity in Western Nations…The ‘IT Crowd’ (Channel 4)

Hackers (1995)

Why

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• “All the heads of departments as well as the Dean were women in the Computer Science department at the University of Malaya, this means there are a variety of role models for the women students”. Dr. Vivian A. Lagesan, Women attracted to IT in Malaysia

lack of role models and impact of self image . . .

• Vicious Circle – without female role models, fewer women will be attracted to IT. With few women being attracted to IT, fewer IT role models will be established.

Female IT Role Models

Women studying and

building a career in IT

Why

• Do recruiting IT managers recruit and attract according to their self image?

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pay gap and lack of flexibility . . .

• Women in IT are paid on average 12% less than men in the US• Salaries for men increased by 2.4% in 2007 but stayed flat for women

• Women in IT on average are paid 20% less than men in IT in the UK• Male IT staff currently earn an average of £720 a week, while female

staff earn around £500

• Women who want to have families may struggle to get back into IT following a career break

• Rapid advances in IT over a relatively short time period may deter women from resuming their career as they may feel ‘out of their depth’ given the huge level of change

IT industry does not do enough to support women and in their roles as mothers

IT simply is not an attractive proposition for many women

Why

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women have different skills . . .Why

• Aggressive• Score highly in complex mental visualisation

& pattern spotting tasks• Have better spatial awareness• More inclined to take risk which contributes

to innovation & competitiveness• More focused• Think linear• Focus on rules and the short-term - "step

thinking"• Confidence – men excel at telling how great

they are• Visibility – promote themselves• Take risks• Plan careers• Play politics• Men have long established networks

• Better at verbal fluency - speak twice as many words as men

• Better bilateral brain involvement in listening, combining left brain thinking with right brain thinking simultaneously

• Women gather more data• Consider the context• Are intuitive• Have a sympathising mind• Think more long-term• Lack confidence – don’t discuss their on

merits and broadcast their limitations• Visibility – have lower profiles than their

male counterparts• Are risk averse• Tend to let their careers happen• Don’t play politics• Women don’t have long established

networks to tap in to

Men Women

Initially these skills may not seem well aligned to IT . . .

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Buddying for women who take a career break

‘what matters is that work gets done – where or at what time it gets done doesn’t matter.

‘Maternity Matters’ to retain female employees embarking on motherhood. 98% of new mothers return to work at Citi.

has introduced Group Crèches to counter the cost of childcare

offered parenting classes at lunchtime

developed the FTSE 100 cross-mentoring programme

have a global partnership with the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society to promote women’s contribution to society and encourage diversity in the business world.

This action does not feel enough…

…the way forward Action

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…the way forwardThe Challenge The Solution

Attracting

Encouraging girls at school that a career in IT is an option

Remove the perception that a career in IT is ‘geeky’

Prevent males recruiting their self-imageEducation using IT as ‘mainstream’ in more

subjects

Developing

Support from the top (both men and women)Successful women actively mentoring

females. Targeted development for women in ITWork closely with organisations such as

‘Women in Technology’ which provide a useful support mechanism

RetainingFlexible working hours, encouraging women

to return to workThe more women in IT – the more ‘female’

orientated the environment should become

Action

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…this has to be addressedThe Future landscape Diverse organisations have proven that they are more successful:

• A report by the European Commission showed that diversity programmes have had a positive impact on employee motivation for 58% of companies that have implemented them.

• A recent Mckinsey report – Women Matter showed that companies with most gender diverse management teams have better financial performance in terms of ROE and Stock Price growth.

The shifting needs for great IT in a business require greater innovation and creativity

India and the developing economies don’t have our historic ‘drag’ • The younger generation of women in India is expected to achieve

educational parity with men by 2016 • In 2010, women are likely to claim 45 per cent of the total workforce for the

IT Industry in India.

What is the price for IT in the developed world if we don’t address this?

Action