Practical steps needed to bring more women into
IT.
Over the years there have been a number of initiatives to
attract more women into IT and encourage girls still at school to
see IT as a worthwhile choice of subject.
Although these initiatives may have achieved some success, the
question remains: what can be done, and by whom, to reverse
significantly the trend of dwindling numbers of women in IT?
First, there are three groups of people who need to be convinced
that having more women in IT would be beneficial to the industry as
a whole.
The most important group are women themselves. As IT has become
ever more oriented towards fulfilling the goals of the business
rather than simply providing a processing service, so the spotlight
has turned increasingly onto soft skills, such as project
management, mentoring and communicating to the business, rather
than just technical expertise.
Many women naturally possess these soft skills from organising
their homes, talking to the kids, and project managing that house
move, and are consequently more than qualified to addvalue to IT
departments by using these skills.
The next group to be convinced are male recruitment agents who
influence whether an individual's CV is put forward for roles in
the IT industry.
Shortlisted by gender
I've often been asked, "You do know it is a technical role,
don't you?" when applying for a position through a recruiter. As I
have certifications from Microsoft, Oracle, ISEB, Comptia, ISC2 and
the APM Group on my CV, it seems unlikely I would be applying for a
receptionist role, but such questions are the price one pays for
being a woman.
In my experience, many male recruiters simply do not know enough
about IT to be able to decide whether an applicant's CV matches up
with the job specification they've been sent, so they choose to do
the shortlisting according to gender instead.
If a woman is lucky enough to make it past the recruitment
agent, then there's the line manager who, in many cases, is a man.
In my last three roles at executive level, I've reported to members
of both sexes and have felt sufficiently supported to continue to
be a working mother of five and an IT executive.
However, the majority of women in IT are on the helpdesk or in
first-line support and are not encouraged to climb the corporate
ladder unless they are fortunate enough to report to a manager who
believes in mentoring their staff and does not feel threatened by
the capabilities of those being mentored.
Many men do not possess mentoring skills, which might explain
why women in recent surveys say one of the things that puts them
off a career in IT is the prospect of a male boss.
Power of role models
Finally, the last group to be convinced are the next generation
- the girls in schools who are increasingly shying away from IT.
Girls are drawn to fashion icons such as Kate Moss as role models
rather than any woman currently working in IT. Do they know we
actually exist? And if so, how can we make IT appear fashionable to
girls at an impressionable age?
There are ways. IT companies could organise and sponsor fun
events such as fashion shows featuring women from the IT industry
rather than celebrities who have possibly never touched a PC in
their lives. Also, why not run a sustained advertising campaign
from E-Skills on prime-time TV, again featuring real women in the
industry?
Similarly, why not press for coverage of events such as industry
awards in the mainstream media which women and girls have access
to, thus reaching a broader audience?
My final suggestion is that Microsoft should be persuaded to
support a sustained campaign - maybe promoting the next release of
Windows using women who will eventually work with the product, from
helpdesk to manager level. Seeing such women talking about their
jobs, in literature enclosed with every PC sold around the globe,
might persuade more women that there is a potential career for them
in IT.
Needless to say, breaking into IT and reaching the top is hard
for a woman, and even more so for those from an ethnic minority
background. However, a sustained and concerted joint campaign by
the media, Microsoft and organisations such as E-Skills could prove
more successful than any other initiative to date.
Ibukun Adebayo is director of IT at social care charity
Turning Point