Women honoured for IT achievement

An academic from Leicester has won the top honour in the first ever BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards.

The awards, hosted by BlackBerry-maker RIM and women's networking group Aurora, aim to recognise professional achievement by UK women in the technology industry.

Jackie Edwards, lecturer at De Montfort University, walked away with the overall prize at an awards ceremony in London last night. She was singled out for her work in expanding the Women's Access to Information Technology (Wait) course which trains women without qualifications how to use computers and then supports them in their efforts to pursue careers in IT and other areas.

Edwards also won the category award for the best woman in technology for academia, in which she was up against nominees from the University of Cambridge and Microsoft Research.

silicon.com reporter Jo Best took the award for best female technology writer.

The other category winners were: Gillian Kent, MD at MSN UK (private sector); Annette Vernon, CIO, Department for Constitutional Affais (public sector); Vicky Reeves, MD at Chameleon Net (small business); and Sue McDougall, commercial and business controls, IBM (mentor).

Accenture was named the best company for advancing women in tech.

At the awards ceremony Meg Munn MP, under secretary of state for women and equality at the Department of Trade and Industry, said promoting role models can help more young women consider careers in IT, as the number of women in the industry is falling.

In 1997, 27 per cent of the IT workforce was female but that figure dropped to 21 per cent in 2005, according to the Office of National Statistics.

A recent study from the DTI showed poor work-life balance and an old-boys' male-dominated working environment and industry culture are the core reasons why the IT sector is unattractive to women.