WITsend

Sue Black is one of the UK's best known campaigners for more women in technology, and she says it's time for men to stand up and be counted when it comes to women at work.

Things have moved on from 20 years ago - more men now understand the rationale behind the women in technology debate. They get that we're not saying all IT staff should be women (that would be just as unpalatable as the seas of masculine suits that currently greet us at most conferences), but that mixed teams are a better idea for everyone: they're more fun, and the number of ideas (or solutions to problems) floating about increases as diversity does.

Sue said, "Now is the time to make it about all of us, rather than just about women. Twenty years ago there weren't enough men on board but now there are. We really need men talking about it. It's a problem for all of us.

"In the past people would assume I wanted there to be only women in technology and no men. That's wrong - I want a balance. I wouldn't want to work in an all-female environment, the same as I don't want to work in an all male one. You want different people, not everyone having a similar mindset."

More men speaking up might help boost the current glacial pace of change on women at work. A report from the Women and Work Commission said the proportion of women in science, engineering and technology is not expected to reach 50% this century, with current levels at 18.5%. It's not just up to women to change things - it's up to men, who, for the most part, are the ones in positions powerful enough to change workplace cultures and implement new policies. It's difficult for some men to realise why so many male dominated teams pose a problem for women, and how covert sexism continues to affect them. It would help to have both male and female voices explaining things if the opportunity arises, because it makes it much harder to brush it aside or pretend it's just women complaining about nothing.

Until men are fully on board with the need for more equality in technology workplaces things won't change. It remains to be seen if those men who already understand the argument, and recognise the problem, will actually start talking about it on public platforms. This is an issue that affects everyone - it's not a niche problem that affects only women. Men may not feel the effects of a monochrome culture quite so directly, but they do lose out. Hopefully a few more will start to agree that it's no longer just down to women to keep bashing on about this.

When I first heard about the Nude London Tech Calendar my reaction was one of indifference. It reminded me of the popular people at school and their regular charity fashion shows. Back then, I decided if people want to go parading around showing off their knobbly bits, that's fine. It's insane, obviously, but fine - I couldn't get my head around why anyone would want to jump about on a stage being judged by little weirdos like me. But it's up to them. I'll watch with a vague sense of fascinated horror before going home to read my Enid Blyton books, while you parade about. That was how things worked between me and the popular people.

I'm still pretty indifferent, and mention the calendar on this blog long after I heard about it, mainly because of a blog shared by Techcrunch Europe editor Mike Butcher on Twitter this week by Eileen Burbridge.

The calendar will feature both men and women; it's for charity; and god knows technology needs a marketing facelift. But I'm with Eileen on this one - I thought the "stars of the London tech scene" being featured in the calendar were supposed to be business people? And surely there's a way to improve the tech sector's image that doesn't involve copying the Women's Institute?

Eileen, who runs her own tech company and was formerly at director level in Yahoo!, says, "If you're in this business and want to be taken seriously as a woman, keep your clothes on. If you want to be perceived and judged as clever, quick-witted, with good business acumen, laser-focussed on your work and generally with your shit together, then keep the primary attention and focus on your cerebral achievements and don't over-flaunt your physical assets."

I'm still fighting my indifference but my biggest objection is that it all seems a little bit ego-driven, a little too similar to school-time fashion shows and perhaps not the image I'd want to cultivate if I was starting and running an internet business. But then again, I'm not starting a tech business, and I'm not an internet big-wig, so maybe I know nothing about how they want to be perceived. If London's hottest tech stars feel the need to share their knobbly bits with the rest of us, they have my blessing. I haven't enjoyed fascinated horror on this level for quite some time.

No Country for Young Women is an exciting new project from freelance film maker Elena Rossini, an Italian who is also behind the documentary-in-development (and popular Twitter feed) The Illusionists.
Elena is turning her attention from notions of female beauty (which The Illusionists tackles) to how women are treated at work. She hopes to connect younger women with older - the older women will be interviewed about their experiences and what they've learnt about coping with discriminatory workplaces, while the younger ones (those in their teens and twenties) will be asked to describe how they've found it so far.
Elena says she wanted her next project to focus on women in the workplace after her research led her to all kinds of stories of harassment, discrimination or alienation. She says, "It really bothers me to see a wage gap, and it's mostly men in the top spots of everything from academia to the corporate world. It's seen as normal now."
The website - which is still being built - will eventually hold all kinds of resources including links to articles on women succeeding in male-dominated fields, both filmed and written interviews, and anonymous essays. Elena hopes to bridge the gap between younger and older women and open up conversations.
"The ultimate aim is to provide inspiration and provide a space for these issues. It's a positive thing, despite the negative topic," she says.
Elena will be interviewing women on film and via email, including those working in technology. "I hear a lot from people in technology how most conference speakers are male, so interviewing women from the technology field is definitely one of our objectives." If you know any female technologists who have advice for younger women starting out in the field, let us know. Keep visiting the site as it's developing - Elena hopes to have around 20 interviews up by the end of the year, and it will grow from there.

After a few months of looking into the women in technology debate, something has slowly dawned on me: It needs to be made easy. Very easy. There are a lot of people who just do not get it, or don't care. They don't see a lack of women in science and technology workplaces as a problem.
Big IT companies haven't really thrown their weight behind the problem, presumably because somewhere behind all the marketing talk is the secretly-held conviction that there isn't one.
There are both women and men who think like this, and they have various reasons for doing so.
Some men (not all) suffer from simply not being able to put themselves in another's place - if it's not a problem that directly affects them then it's not a problem they can conceive of.
And then there's apathy - the idea that this is just how things are, for whatever reason, and drawing attention to it isn't going to change it. People should stop complaining and get on with doing their jobs, because things aren't going to change drastically in the short or medium term.
This is actually a point I sometimes get close to agreeing to. Other times, I want to yell "Where would we be if the suffragettes had thought that? You fools!" Arguing about anything with even a vaguely feminist slant to it is exhausting, and you can only make the same points a finite number of times before wanting to resort to violence. Most of the time, you do just have to get on with things and ignore your colleagues' really funny porn or women-related jokes or the vague alienation and lack of communication that can come with being the only girl in the village.
But, irrespective of the reasons for people's lack of understanding, the argument for more women in technology needs to be made really simple. So here's an easy reason to get on board for those who just don't get it: Money! Profit! Lots of lovely revenue! Amazingly enough, companies with a mixed workforce make more money, in general, than companies without. An article in the Harvard Business Review last month said that the female market has twice the potential of China and India combined. And a study by advertising consultancy Lady Geek, founded by Belinda Parmar, found there's a possible £0.6bn up for grabs in the UK technology market alone. That's right, you could make loads of money convincing me I need another one of your lovely laptops. If only you'd stop slapping butterflies on them and trying to tell me they're a fashion accessory.
The money is there for the taking - if you get it right (which very few companies have yet). And what's more, to tap into this market, you need people who are able to get it right (which very few companies are yet). If you want to make money out of women buying technology, you need more women working for you. It's genius! I might patent this idea before the big boys catch on.
In a further extraordinary revelation, McKinsey's 2007 "Women Matter" report showed European companies with the highest proportion of women in senior management experience better-than-average financial performance. It makes logical sense, because different types of people are likely to have different ideas. Discussion will hopefully throw up the best way of approaching something. (That's if everyone is capable of communicating and discussing things properly, which is admittedly a fairly big if.) There's a steady stream of articles and books backing up the claim that mixed teams do better.
It doesn't get simpler than that: more women in technology companies means more money. Until the big technology companies cotton on and start to actually do something, my services as a management consultant are available for the excellent price of £9,000 an hour.

A quick post to point you in the direction of an article written by Ian Grant: What IT women want is more flexible career paths, well worth a read.

Two brilliant headlines from recent tech press releases: 1. Women don't work hard and 2. Women are clueless about technology.
So I'm lazy, and I can't turn my computer on, because I'm just so female and flimsy. I don't even know why I bother leaving the house in the morning. I'll probably get sacked soon anyway, on account of my laziness.
You might assume there must be some high quality research backing up such strong statements. But you'd be wrong - it's lazy, sexist PR guff. It's companies desperate for some coverage, coming up with a "controversial" headline to try and get it.
I auto-deleted my copies of these press releases, but was prompted into mentioning them by Maggie Berry at WomeninTechnology.co.uk, who blogged on the "clueless" story.
In the "women are lazy" shocker, a "performance analysis software vendor" (sorry?) called OfficeMetrics informs us all that women start their days earlier than men, but are less productive. I almost can't be bothered to explain the rest of this ridiculous story, if I can call it that. Blah blah numbers blah and at the end - a statement saying actually, we don't really know what we're talking about.
I'm not usually one for PR-bashing, a sport that a lot of unjustifiably smug journalists like to engage in. But any agency who pitches or sends this sort of rubbish is wasting their time and making their client look stupid.
What's more, companies like TechGuys (the bunch behind the story calling me clueless) need women to get interested in working in IT. The UK (and I think the US) don't have enough good quality technology staff. Alienating half the population by calling us clueless and lazy is a great way of attracting decent people to work for them. Nice work TechGuys. Who calls their company that anyway?

T3 have announced their Tech100 list for 2009, naming the 100 most influential people in technology. 

Catalina McGregor is founder and chair of the CIO / CTO Council Green ICT Delivery Group, and is producing real change in the way government IT operates.

The delivery group published the first strategic vision for Greening Government IT in Europe and has set targets for central government chief information officers.

McGregor is at the centre of government and seems committed to transforming the way IT is used, procured and disposed of in the public sector. She is passionate about the amount of technology that's getting dumped by Europe and the US in Asia and Africa, and says legislation and policy can only do so much. If we keep throwing away as much as we are, it will still get dumped in places like Ghana, because it's lucrative to do so. The people doing the dumping will find a way around the law if the volume of old IT remains as high as it currently is.

McGregor has been called "one of the most significant drivers of green IT in the western world", and she is the liaison officer to the UN ITU Focus Group for ICT and climate change.

Before working at the cabinet office, she held posts at the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Trade and Industry. She is also the former head of e-business and e-commerce for Richemont Luxury Group.

We're going to be writing more about McGregor's work but in the meantime, if you have a daughter who you think would do well in the technology sector, you could do a lot worse than leaving McGregor's CV lying around for her to find.

Strictly all-female tech events seems to be a touchy subject for everyone involved in tech.

Last night saw the fourth anniversary event for London's Girl Geek Dinners. It was the first Girl Geek event I had been to and I found it more friendly, interesting and lively than just about any other tech event I've attended.

The best thing about Girl Geek Dinners is that it doesn't want to be negative. It's not about complaining about the diversity problems in technology - we all know they're there, and we all know it's in everyone's interests to make them go. It actually tries to move the debate forward, come up with ideas for how to change things, and be constructive rather than just critical.

It also provides women with a chance to be in the majority, which makes a nice change for most of them.

Maggie Philbin, science and technology broadcaster and former Tomorrow's World presenter, summed it up by saying, "It's not about moaning about the negative side of things - tonight is about flagging up the things that really are making a difference for women, and looking at what we can change to make a difference. We are anxious to move forward."

Sarah Blow set up the Girl Geek Dinners network four years ago, thinking it would be "few girls based in London having some nice food and a few drinks talking about what they have been up to with their work." Since then it has mushroomed into a global network of groups, and things are slowly beginning to look up for women in technology.

She said, "When I first started Girl Geek Dinners the IT industry felt isolating and lonely for many women in the industry, not just in the work place but whenever you attended technical events. 

"You tended to feel out of place and were often challenged on why you were at events. Since the Girl Geek Dinners, Women in Technology and BCS Women have come about we've seen the number of women at events increase, not by huge amounts but just a little."

Not only this but men, as a result, are a lot less surprised to see female technologists, and more friendly and welcoming. There are more women going to technical user groups, and the emergence of some very strong female technical role models.

So things are improving, which is great, but there's still a way to go. There's still some sexism in the technology industry (although it tends to be more "underground" than it used to be), and women only make up around 15% of it. This needs tackling.

And as for the natural differences between men and women, the reasons why girls don't choose technology, the nature versus nurture question - the debate about possible causes for the gender divide can only get us so far. What matters is what we are going to do to change it.

Margaret Robertson is a writer and consultant on gaming and education. She said last night, "The lack of women in IT could be down to marketing, to upbringing, or to natural differences between the sexes. In 50 years, maybe we'll have an answer to this question, but at the moment we just don't know.

"We can get a little bit worried about the complexity of the problem, but we just need to back the projects that have been shown to work."

Don't just worry about why the problem exists, and instead make the decision to change it. Another article will follow with some of the practical tips that came out of the debate, but that was the main message I took away from the evening.