The issues affecting women moving ahead in IT are perhaps not too dissimilar from other professions, such as inflexible working conditions, being overlooked for promotion and needing to work flexible hours
at board level then they will be the losers in the long run. Anecdotal evidence is insufficient to drill the message home, but a top down approach through Institute of Directors and other advisory bodies should be used to prove the benefits with hard facts. I believe that we should not forget that the same motivations are not apparent for a group of men versus a group of women. Some women like middle management, there may be fewer who put themselves forward and a woman should not be viewed as a failure if she stays where she is rather than pushing for a board position. Otherwise, it’s a little like being made to feel guilty for choosing not to have children.”
THE BIG ISSUES The issues affecting women moving ahead in IT are perhaps not too dissimilar from other professions such as inflexible working conditions, being overlooked for promotion and needing to
work flexible hours. IT is not very conducive to long career breaks, but the WIT survey did find that the ‘long hours’ culture in IT was also a key concern for 75% of women. Yet, the use of technology grows year on year. It’s more accessible, easy to use and accurate, but how do we encourage more people, particularly women, into IT as a career? There is a general perception of the IT industry as being one full of nerds and this is to some extent driven by the media, films and television shows that typically have a bias to male IT people. Emma Faulkner a lead software engineer at G4S Monitoring
Technologies Ltd ironically suggests: “I think it’s the lack of women in IT! Programmes like “the IT crowd” are hilarious but don’t do us any favours. IT people are often portrayed as total nerds on TV, but actually we’re not all about pizza and gadgets and going to Star Trek conventions. Well, yes we are all about the gadgets, I’ll give you that!”
EDUCATING ‘IT’ GIRLS…
Some people can be naturally talented and attracted to technology. An early brush with code left Faulkner passionate about writing code. “I had a maths lesson in 1983 during which we wrote a BASIC program on an ABC80 computer. Even though nearly an hour of typing only gave us a white bar that moved around the screen, I was hooked.” Our early years tend to shape and inform us. So, getting girls in involved in IT early could help to see more women in senior positions in the future. Clare Patterson, principal advisor at KPMG says: “Schools and colleges need to explain the variety of roles available in IT. I’m an ambassador for STEMNET who create opportunities to inspire young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Many of the students I speak to believe a role in IT means you sit and program all day. Young girls are surprised to hear I spend much of my day talking to people, because I work in IT they imagine I spend all my day in a room with only my computer for company!”
When you think of somebody working in IT many of you will conjure up images of men. And depending on your experience of IT colleagues, their character will vary
24 December 2012 | Volume 22 – Issue 4
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