New uses of IT could boost attractiveness of industry,
says Wendy Hall
Earlier this year the British Computer Society conducted a
survey of UK schoolgirls, focusing on the failure to attract more
women into IT. Could this failure be traced back to women's
formative school years, when career choices are considered and
further education routes formalised?
The survey produced notes of both encouragement and
discouragement. However, its fundamental message was that budding
female enthusiasm for computing and IT is being dampened. Although
half the respondents appreciated the potential of IT for further
study or as a career option, a large number of girls associate
computing with mundane office or secretarial work. Clearly, careers
advisers and the IT profession itself are failing to engage girls
with a more exciting vision of IT as a rewarding and varied career
option.
The number of women in IT has been falling since the 1980s and
is now thought to be about 20% of the total workforce. Industry and
government initiatives have made little difference, but the BCS has
not been complacent.
Bringing more women into IT
Although I was only the second female president in the 50-year
history of the society, the BCS has a lively women's group and last
year we launched a Women in IT Award in the BCS IT Professional
Awards. This recognises organisations that encourage women into
their IT departments and offer opportunities for career
advancement.
We are about to launch a BCS women's forum that will investigate
and make recommendations to business and government on how the
widening gender divide can be bridged.
Several initiatives have been launched over the years with the
intention of increasing the number of women in IT, and more are
needed. Organisations including Women Into IT and the Women in IT
Forum, sponsored by the Department of Trade & Industry, are
very active.
Past and current initiatives include activities for girls aged
11 to 13 - the view being that they get more set in their ideas as
they get older than this. Activities include school workshops and
computer clubs, work with the Girl Guides, awards for high
achievement in exams and bringing girls into an IT supplier for a
week.
Careers advisers can explain to girls that a break of five
years, for example to have children, should not be a major career
setback. IT is a modern industry, where specific skills are in
short supply and companies often quite flexible.
IT changes will bridge the gap
Careers workshops have been run for university students. These
work better if several employers join together to talk about
working in IT. Students differentiate this from the traditional
"milk round" in which employers sell their own company and
interview people individually.
Only 17% of UK computer science degree entrants are women; most
of these are from overseas. Many women are put off careers in
technology because of the lack of role models. Bill Gates, chairman
of Microsoft, lamented recently the lack of women working in the
technology and computer engineering sectors.
Men dominate IT and many other sectors at all levels. There is
often an "old boys' network". The impact of male dominance is felt
in several ways. For example, a female entrepreneur can get funding
bids turned down because "you are single, female, and probably
going to get pregnant", regardless of her circumstances. Getting a
man to front the bid can turn rejections into offers. Coming clean
later can get venture capitalists to be more positive about future
bids from women.
Yet my hunch is that the rapidly changing nature of IT
applications will be the solution to the gender imbalance. IT is
already broadening its role and embracing other disciplines.
Biology and medicine - both subjects already attracting a high
number of female students - are incorporating IT into their
syllabuses, while the growth in demand for forensic computer
expertise is attracting more women into IT security.
Women use IT as much as men, but are only minimally involved in
either the hardware or software design process. But once girls
start seeing, perhaps via the media, how IT is an increasingly
fundamental part of the more "glamorous" professions, we will see a
turnaround. And I believe that is nearer than we think.
Wendy Hall is professor of computer science at the
University of Southampton
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