Paul Brislen of the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand wrote a thought-provoking blog post the other day about the shortage of women in technology.

…Why should you care? Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s hard to find staff in the broader ICT field. It starts at tertiary level where the universities and colleges of New Zealand are failing to attract their full number of candidates and it runs through to most large companies where the IT team is generally more than 70 per cent male and that’s being generous.

All too often I’ve been to conferences (even ones organised by TUANZ) and seen two or three women and that’s it. Generally, they’re the PR folk who organised the event in the first place. Women simply aren’t anywhere near the level of staff you’d expect if all things were equal.

I’ve been to those conferences too – generally though in my roles doing communications for technology companies, or the government. Being in a minority isn’t a lot of fun. I’ve got two anecdotes that may contribute to the larger picture.

• At an Open Government bar camp last year, in which we discussed ways to do more with data that is harvested by government agencies, the organiser suggested that if you were struggling with some of the technical issues raised, you should find someone with a beard to explain it to you. I called him out for that, and he apologised, but it was a unwelcome reminder that women aren’t expected to be technical.
• Recently a Boston API  Jam (an informal conference) was organised, and was listed with the perks of attending including being brought beer by women. Luckily, many people were quick to jump on this sexist ‘brogrammer’ attitude, and sponsors pulled out, leading to a pretty comprehensive apology from the organisers  that acknowledged the difficulties of a male-dominated tech industry.

There are many, many more examples of negative experiences women in tech have had, but it gets kind of depressing to list them. Instead, here’s two bright points that I think suggest the situation can improve.

• Tech people get a lot of tshirts, from vendors, from conferences, from all kinds of things. These tshirts are normally boxy, and come in men’s sizes only. Webstock, a yearly web conference in Wellington, offers its tshirts in women’s cuts and sizes as well. This is a very clear acknowledgement that there are women in the industry. I have a friend Brenda who’s a brilliant programmer, and goes to a lot of tech events which are mainly male, so at Webstock  she was very excited that there was actually a queue in the women’s bathroom.
• In Wellington, and in other cities around the world, there are a series of events called Geek Girl Dinners, where women in tech speak about their careers, their passions and their hobbies. These dinners are subsidised thanks to sponsorship, and student tickets are generally around $5. It’s a great way to find role models and inspiration.

How does this relate to us here at Careers New Zealand?

Obviously, we want to help people be aware of what job options they have, and what training they will need to get into those jobs. We don’t have a mandate as such to try to get more women into technology, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work towards that goal anyway. IT jobs are often well-paid, so more women in tech roles would help redress the gender pay gap in New Zealand. So what should we do?

Paul has some suggestions.

If we are to encourage half the population to take our industry seriously as a career choice, we need to make it an industry that is enticing, that is interesting, that is even grudgingly accepting that women can and should be a part of the community and we have to start at the very basic level…
…. But we need to encourage women into this industry and that means starting well before the job interview. That means starting before they’ve made the choice at tertiary level – that means going into high schools and making sure the girls who are yet to decide on their future are encouraged and welcomed into the IT world.

We need to do a better job, as an industry, at selling ourselves to these kids. We need to go in to schools and tell them about the cool stuff we do. We need to tell them about designing games, about travelling the world, about getting paid well above the average wage. We need to talk to the kids and encourage them to join in, and we need to talk to everyone who doesn’t belong to the computer club, or who spends their lunchtime at a terminal in the lab. We need to preach to the unconvinced, to the unconverted and to the boys and girls who are able to do maths, who get science and critical thinking and we need to get them to consider their options.

That includes the girls, and if that means we need to make a change to the culture of this industry then we absolutely have to make that change, because excluding half the population simply isn’t acceptable.

That’s some good advice. Now to act on it!

Filed under: Career options Tagged: blogosphere, gender pay gap, IT, technology