Senior female figures in the IT industry say it is
crucial that work is done to attract more women into the
profession.
The group at an
Intellect roundtable event last week (Nov 14) agreed that if
the UK is to remain competitive, IT employers will have to work
harder to plug the skills gap with talented female developers and
project managers - who must be paid the same as their male
counterparts.
Gillian Arnold, hardware outsourcing executive at
IBM, said more resources should be ploughed into the issue.
"The IT sector should put forward a group of people, funding, and a
location to work on this full time for a couple of years.
"There are issues that need desperate attention, and while the
current army of part-timers is well meaning, progress is too slow
if we are to make any headway."
She said she would like to see a target of 30% women set for the
IT industry, which all companies would be obliged to try to
meet.
Sarah Speake, a technologist at
Google, said it is down to companies to market themselves
better and improve their appeal to women.
"The culture of the industry makes it an unattractive place for
women. It is down to organisations and how they promote themselves
and their diversity."
The women all agreed the culture of the IT industry needs work,
with Kate Criag-Wood, who set up her own web hosting company
Memset, saying, "When people think of IT, they think of a beardy
bloke with sandals, not
Facebook, Myspace and Google." There needs to be more female
public IT figures to act as role models, she said.
As well as contending with geeks, women also have to battle an
"old boys' network" mentality. Speake said, "Until I ended up in
Google I was very aware of this."
Claire Curtis-Thomas, MP for Crosby and chair of the all-party
parliamentary group for women in science, engineering and
technology, said an industry that was perceived to discriminate
against part of its workforce would not attract women.
The pay gap is a major issue, with Gillian Arnold saying, "If
you started at the same time as a male colleague and have more or
less the same job, but they seem to be on £20,000 more than you,
you are going to wander what is going on."
This could be one reason for the industry's problem with
retention. Sue Davies, HR director at IT services company Sopra,
said many women in their 40s had either retired or moved away from
IT. "This concerns me," she said. "What is driving them out?"
The industry also needs to watch its working practices, the
group said.
Women need flexibility to help them look after families, child
care and retraining after maternity leave. Speake said, "Too many
are dropping out after having families because they cannot reach a
suitable arrangement with their company. They are reluctantly
leaving, and it worries me there is no standard to adhere to. These
issues are present in most industries but are particularly extreme
in ours."
Curtis-Thomas said women did not want to "get rid of their
caring role in society," but they do want to be able to work as
well - and it is down to employers to make this possible. "Bad
times are really coming in terms of recruitment in this industry
and the problem will become more challenging," she warned.
She said these arguments should be articulated to government and
initiatives backed with funding.
But throwing money at the problem will not be enough. "The
problem is getting women to make the career choice, and then
hanging on to them."