| A look at the employees’ picture boards, a count
of the team I currently work in (seven males, one female – same
count as another team I worked in two years ago!) would
confirm that what statistics and the IT media are saying
is true: there are fewer women working in IT these days.
But quite honestly, only after seeing the media reports
did I notice the facts. So now the questions are: Why is
this happening and does it really matter?
Once upon a time…
I am not sure whether the IT field and computers have always
been seen as a “geek/male” domain. But I
remember an event witnessed some twenty years ago in
the data center where I was working as a programmer analyst
- one of an all female team of some twenty; (managers
were male and so was the entire staff overseeing the
mainframe computer). One day the mainframe broke down
and our brave computer engineers could not figure out
what the problem was. So eventually, they called the
service company to send someone on site. It so happened
that the engineer they sent was a woman. Amid the condescending
looks of her male counterparts, she made the computer
tick again half an hour later. As she filed her papers
and closed the office door behind her, the three male
engineers were quietly exchanging half-admiring, half-embarrassed
looks.
If stories like this one were served to young
women with just a fraction of the ardor that is put into
pumping their minds full of the latest in fashion and
pop culture, then the number of women enrolled in IT
programs, and the proportion of women in the IT work
force, would probably not show the steep decline decried
by some analysts. The statistics - and again, just a
simple look across the floor of some IT departments -
tell an interesting story: There are many female managers
now (even at higher levels than first line), but the
overall number and proportion of women in IT has declined
sharply. For women, it is no longer so much a problem
of getting through the “glass ceiling”, but
with getting at the base of the pyramid to start with! The mirror is defective
Some experts see the reluctance of young women to enter
the IT field as a problem for the IT sector. But, in
this age of work force diversity, the opportunity to
draw resources from a whole demographic segment should
not be missed. IT professional bodies, employers and
educators try to remedy the situation by running regular
educational events for high-school girls. Aimed at raising
their awareness of the IT profession, these events try
to present the IT industry’s many faces and opportunities,
and to dispel its myths.
Also, women already in IT careers
get some special attention: some employers organize
networking events for women, offer mentoring opportunities
and support
IT all-women professional organizations.
But is it
really anything special or different to be a woman in
IT? The
nature of the work, be it at the base or at the top,
does not require gender-specific attributes. But
the work climate could be affected by gender imbalance. Who’s the fairest of them all?
Since scientists have demonstrated that the male and female
brain have different wiring, and IT analysts seem to
agree that the gender gap in IT is a problem that should
be addressed, it seems risky to conclude that for a sector
already confronted with an over-supply of workers, the
makeup of its current and future work force along gender
lines (or any other lines), is a non-issue; or that being
a woman in IT makes no substantial difference to the
said woman ’s professional life and development.
What really matters is that all people working in IT
have the education, skills and social maturity to be
able to work in a diverse team. There is no place there
for “Snow White” and don’t expect “Prince
Charming” to come by and solve your technology
troubles; count yourself with the “dwarves” on
the team. In IT, competence has no gender.
Tatiana Andronache is IT technical staff
for a large information technology company in Toronto, Canada.
She can be reached at tatiana.andronache@sympatico.ca
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