February 20, 2008
Why Women Should Be in IT
Women's soft skills should work for them in the IT industry, giving them edge for promotion, security of tenure, and pay increase.
IT business leaders and hiring managers lament the lack of women in the tech industry. Even when tech spending is about to slow down for the rest of the year, there are plenty of reasons why IT should still be an ideal industry where women should find work.
Shortage of tech workers – Because technology is inescapable, more tech workers are needed by various firms, from manufacturing, to engineering, to software development. In the United States alone, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates nearly one million IT jobs will be created by 2014. Not only are these 1 million workers required to have tech backgrounds or degrees in computer sciences and engineering, they should have a vast array of supporting knowledge. The competitive field of the industry requires its workers to have advanced technical, management and communication skills—some things that women are very good at.
Blurring of gender lines – In a field when brain is considered more useful than brawn, gender lines disappear in spite of the larger number of males at the workplace. Just like most professions that do not recognize gender, the increasingly sophisticated nature of technology jobs is gender-blind. Systems administration, software development, quality management, business analysis, and most other aspects of tech work do not call for participants to fall under gender roles. All that tech workers need is brilliant ideas, a knack for computer languages, and team spirit.
Soft skills are valued – According to experts, women are more adept at the soft skills that are very useful in collaborative working environments, such as communication, teamwork, attention to details, and problem-solving. When all workers are adept at programming, those who have soft skills definitely gain the edge for promotion, security of tenure, and pay increase.
Telecommuting – Women who have children can now work from home without sacrificing deliverables and missing deadlines. Thanks to new technologies that allow for secure data access and management, more workers are getting the privileges of telecommuting. For the more enterprising workers, work-at-home freelance jobs provide the best fit for mothers who need to stay with the kids.
IT workers’ pay scales are increasing – Due to increasing demand for skilled tech workers, pay scales are going up for both men and the still-few women. Even when men still generally receive bigger paychecks, the salary trajectory in the industry still points upwards. A good news is that at the top tech job positions, women and men make roughly the same. According to a recent survey by Sheila Greco Associates, the average base salary for CIOs among medium companies is US$150,000 to $200,000. Fortune 500 firms give about $450 to $1.5 million.
In spite of the belief that the tech sector is dominated by males, women should be encouraged to enter the IT industry where they can get a lot of the perks that were not accorded to previous generations of workers. Moreover, the nature of IT work that does not have any gender preference works for both men and women.
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