March 02, 2008
Why are there very few women in IT?
Being geek has never been perceived as “cool” until lately, thanks to the success stories bannered by women leaders in Silicon Valley, such as Flickr founder, Caterina Fake and Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience, Marissa Mayer.
A recent report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only 26.1% of all tech workers are women, a drop of about 2.7% from 2001 figures.
According to Patricia Shafer and Barbara Trautlein in their 2007 report, Women in Technology, even though the possibilities look rosy for women who want to work in the tech industry, the playing field is still not level. This self-propagating issue is further complicated by the lack of role models or mentors, the feeling that women’s views in IT are not given much weight, and that IT is generally an “unappealing” field.
The issues that discourage women from entering the IT field can be remedied, but solutions must start from the academe. Educators must help squash the idea that science, engineering, or math courses and professions are not suitable for women. When it comes to the rigors of the technology industry, gender lines are not clear-cut, and there are no particular gender-appropriate disciplines or work classifications in IT.
Another issue that prevents women from actively pursuing careers in IT is related to the prolonged working hours. It has become common practice among tech companies to extend workdays developing, implementing, checking, or managing technology projects. As if prolonged hours during the week are not enough, work sometimes extends to weekends. Even when project team members are not engaged in development or system administration, coordination and communication often require them to be either physically on-site or virtually, by telecommuting. This eats up time that would otherwise be spent with families or attending to personal responsibilities.
Work-life imbalance has become an axiom in the tech field, and it appears that women are more affected by this issue, especially those who have children or families to attend to. Companies should devise ways to address the need of tech workers to take some time away from work, not only the workplace. While telecommuting has afforded women to work at the comforts of their homes, it has also overlapped personal and work times.
It is only lately that women leaders in the IT sector are getting recognized. A FORTUNE magazine survey of 2006’s most powerful women shows that of the 50 surveyed, nine held leadership positions in technology-related companies.
The lack of female role models worsens the problem with encouraging women to join IT, which has been perceived in popular culture as “tedious, sedentary, and anti-social,” according to an MIT study in the 90s. Suffice to say that being geek has never been perceived as “cool” until lately, thanks to the success stories bannered by women leaders in Silicon Valley, such as Flickr founder, Caterina Fake and Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience, Marissa Mayer.
The lesson is to introduce women to math and science courses and change the wrong perception that people have about IT. Moreover, tech companies should encourage more support for women who join their workforce especially in the face of labor glut in the sector.
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