Have you ever been in a room full of your technical peers, yet you felt you were completely invisible? I cannot tell you how many times, after years in technology, I am still far too often the only woman around. The uncomfortable truth is that women in technology are still far from equal, yet now more than ever the industry needs the diversity and talent that women bring.
The statistics are grim. Women make up only 20 percent of the programmers and 31 percent of the technology workforce as a whole. After years of glass ceilings and active discouragement from the IT community, the number of women in top US technology management jobs has recently dropped from a dismal 12 percent in 2012 to a measly 9 percent in 2013.
Look on the bright side. It could be worse; globally the percentage of women CIOs is a mere 3 percent. Women’s participation in the software industry peaked in 1993 at 37 percent of the programmers.
Ironically, in an industry that heavily relies on offshore outsourcing to chase the bottom dollar, information technology women’s salaries are still comparatively less than men with similar experience, and they still are hired at a lower rate than their male peers. At least the gap is close enough in the IT field that there is real parity with equal levels of experience, education, and parallel job titles according to Dice.com’s 2012-2013 salary survey.
After years of advancement of women in many previously male-dominated professions as diverse as medical doctor (45 percent) and CEO (25 percent), why has IT lagged behind? The answers are complicated but seem to boil down to a macho culture combined with a lack of mentors, which creates an active or passive environment that discourages women from sticking with an IT career for the long haul.
With technology playing a greater role in business than ever before, the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts an astounding 22.2 percent growth in the computer-related job market compared to an expected 10 percent overall growth. The industry simply cannot afford to lose the opportunity to tap into 50 percent of the talent pool solely because they are female.
It is not like there is a shortage of talented women with the right skills for success in technology-heavy fields. But there is some hope in all the dismal statistics. For the first time since at least 1993, the University of California, Berkeley has more women (OK, only 106 women to 104 men) enrolled in their introduction to computer science course. It behooves the industry to do everything it can to encourage young women to pursue STEM education, which gives them the basic skills to enter IT careers.
In honor of International Women’s’ Day celebrated on March 8 each year, the next time you find your technical judgment questioned or your code scrutinized a little too closely, just remember that if we keep encouraging the next generation of women to enter the field, the discrimination and sexism will give way to collaboration and mutual respect for the skills that both sexes bring to software engineering, programming, and IT in general.
