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Sexes split on how to fix IT gender imbalance
Skills Survey 2008: Is positive discrimination the answer?

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Monday 01 December 2008

Although men and women hold opposing views on whether the IT industry discriminates against women, both sexes agree the lack of women is bad for UK Plc. So how should the industry go about increasing the proportion of women in IT?

Asked whether CIOs should use positive discrimination to increase the number of women in the industry - a tactic that has been used to ramp up numbers of female political candidates and boost the representation of women in parliaments and governments - the sexes were again split.

More than half (52 per cent) of male respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that IT chiefs should use positive discrimination, with just a fifth holding the opposite view. And while fractionally more women were in favour of it than against it, the female vote was almost evenly split for and against: 38 per cent to 36 per cent respectively.

Eileen Brown, a member of the British Computer Society's strategic Women's Forum and a senior evangelist at software giant Microsoft, is one female technology worker who would be against such a move - despite admitting her own career benefitted from the UK's 1975 anti-sex-discrimination legislation.

She told silicon.com: "I think I am one of those women that would shudder at positive discrimination to get women into IT… But when I was at sea - I joined the merchant navy - and I was the very first woman to go to sea with Shell Tankers and that was definitely positive discrimination because the Sex Discrimination Act had been passed and they had to employ a woman eventually who was qualified enough to do the role."

She added: "At the time I didn't think about it but now, as a mature woman, I would hate to think that I only got the job because I was a woman and they needed to fill their numbers. That would be dreadful."

Brown believes there will be no quick fix for the gender imbalance in IT but she is hopeful for the future - when the children of today's 'social networking generation' arrive in the workplace.

She said: "Kids today, they've grown up with social networking, instant messaging and all the social aspects of this. And you find if you speak to young people like college hires or people we bring in for our recruitment fairs they are unaware that this is an issue because they've used IT for their whole lives.

"And I think when these young people who were born in the internet age become parents themselves, that's when there won't be an issue. But at the moment of course we don't have… the second generation of 'computer age' adults through [into the workplace]."

She added: "I don't have a computer science degree - I ran away to sea when I was 16. I came into IT when I was 33. So I think it's a generational shift. I don't think this is something we can sort out this year or next year or [in] two years or five years."

Asked whether they would encourage their daughters to work in IT, a slightly higher proportion of female respondents to the silicon.com 2008 Skills Survey said they wouldn't do this or would actively discourage it: almost a third (30 per cent) of the women, compared to just over a fifth (21 per cent) of the men. The majority of both sexes said they would encourage their daughters to get into tech.

However both genders were slightly more likely to encourage sons to enter IT: 42 per cent of men would encourage daughters and 45 per cent would encourage sons; compared to 45 per cent of women who would encourage daughters and 49 per cent who would encourage sons.

Both sexes also supported the view that more flexible working would increase the proportion of women in IT, with more than half (56 per cent) of all respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing it could help. An even higher proportion (66 per cent) of female respondents believe it is a key issue for getting more women into tech.

e-skills UK's CEO, Karen Price, agreed the IT industry must embrace flexible working or it risks losing out in the battle to recruit talented workers - male or female.

She told silicon.com: "All employees appreciate flexible working and support for a positive work/life balance. Our research revealed that of the 141,000 new recruits needed every year to fill IT and telecoms job roles, more than half will come from people already in employment. There will be fierce competition for the best.

"Flexible and supportive work practices will help to recruit talented candidates with family commitments and those returning after a career break."