DWomen in IT need to show and tell what a good job they do if
they want to advance in the industry, a conference heard this
week.
More than 200 women from Microsoft, Google, Nortel, Intel, IBM,
HP and Cisco attended the fourth Connecting Women in IT event at
Dell's EMEA headquarters in Bracknell.
Ingrid Devin, EMEA diversity manager for Dell, said most women
were happy to do their jobs and hope that someone would notice how
good they were.
"Working hard is not enough. Women have to put themselves about
a bit more, and tell people what they've done," she said.
The conference started with a session on networking skills,
after which delegates, colour-coded according to their job titles,
got a chance to practice what they'd heard, said Shirley Creed,
Dell's global corporate secretary.
Devin said the work/life balance rather than pay was top of mind
among delegates. She said this was especially the case when women
were in their 30s, as this was when many wished to start families.
This made getting them back to work an important issue both for
individuals and employers, she said.
Creed said Dell had just started a programme called "Taking the
stage" to help women decide what kind of career path they wanted in
the company.
Many women gave up deserved promotions (or were not considered
for one) because of the children issue. Women should be prepared to
take more risks with their careers, Devin said.
"Offered a promotion, most men would go to the pub and tell
everyone they'd got it. Most women would say they'd think about it,
go home and talk to everyone to see whether they could do it and
how it would fit in," said Devin.
Assertiveness training could help, but individuals' social
networks were more vital, Devin said.
"Most tech-heads are passionate (about the technology)," she
said. "Their homes probably have better kit than their offices, so
staying up the technology is less of an issue than the ramp-off,
ramp-on,".
Devin and Creed called for changes to corporate cultures and
business processes that would make it easier for women to accept
justified promotions without having to give up family duties.
"Sometimes making director is just not that important to women
when they come back to work, but men have just as hard a time
taking all their paternity leave in case they are seen as less
committed," Devin said.
"The corporate culture should be open and flexible enough to
accommodate such events," she said.