Leader: Women's role in IT

It's hard to know what to make of the recent, mixed news on women's role in IT.

The government tells us the number of women working in the industry in the UK has fallen by six per cent since 1997. This figure was so upsetting, the DTI recently launched a study to find out why. What they discovered was proof of the old clichés that women don't like the long hours and male-dominated environment.

Yet a newer study from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) reveals female IT managers are in fact younger, better-paid and climbing the corporate ladder faster than their male counterparts. Doesn't sound so bad, does it?

These pieces of information may sound contradictory but it isn't necessarily so. Women may indeed be unhappy in IT and thus require those higher salaries to keep them around. It's also worth pointing out that by 'higher', we mean an average of some £780 per year more than men for IT managers. Hardly enough to buy - well - anything substantial.

But it's not all bad. The women who do stick around probably have advantages. The CMI study says females have higher turnover rates and are more likely to resign. This was called "worrying" by an industry observer but it could just be that women are less inclined to settle for an inadequate situation. It could also mean they're able to leave because they're confident they'll get a better position elsewhere. We're not still in the mindset where staying on at one company for 20 years is the only proof of success, are we?

We don't disagree that the falling numbers of women in IT are troubling - and of course we support rewarding women and men equally and doing what's possible to encourage them to pursue the career - if they're interested.

As with any issue of gender or race in the workplace, the reality is subtler than the headlines. Whether women are interested in tech is an issue influenced by families, education and the greater society and culture - even by genetic make-up, some might argue. It's going to be hard for one boss, one company or one government programme to overcome all these factors. But that doesn't mean it's not worth trying.