Why aren’t girls choosing ICT roles?
20th July 2010
With ICT (Information and Communications Technology) becoming more and more ingrained in our daily lives why is there still a disproportionate number of girls coming into the industry and taking up education courses at university in ICT subjects? According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, women comprise between 15 and 25 per cent of ICT employees.1 In 2006 in Queensland, only 0.9 per cent of all female year 12 graduates chose information technology as their post-school field of study. A total of 5.5 per cent of all year 12 graduates chose it as their post-school field of study.2
For me as a child of the 80’s a typical stereotype of an IT role was someone sat in front of a computer all day generating code to make software, something that definitely didn’t appeal to me. I would have thought this stereotype would have moved on considerably by now with the internet, games consoles, mobile phones etc, and that with a range of more diverse roles many more women would be in ICT roles. However looking at the statistics and research this doesn’t seem to be the case, so I thought I’d ask someone I know why this might be happening. She is 25 and has a computer science degree and was the only girl on her course and her answer absolutely shocked me:
It’s not socially acceptable for girls to do techie stuff. You are discouraged from doing it so much that it’s not worth the effort to argue. And trying to get a job is a nightmare, I was turned down for an interview for a coding position because the guy said “he didn’t think I’d fit in with the other guys”
So now counting my blessings that I work somewhere as open and non-discriminatory as Reading Room I am even happier (was already quite proud) to say we have decided to support this year’s Technology Takes You Anywhere event by running a workshop about digital design. This is an annual event aimed at increasing girls’ interest in technology and their confidence with using it. Through these events, girls will be exposed to a range of different technologies and female role models who work successfully in the ICT industry. Girls will also discover the diverse range of challenging and rewarding pathways that exist within the industry. We hope to share what we do at Reading Room so that girls get to see the exciting range of possibilities there are within a digital consultancy, and to get them interested in an industry which is only going to get bigger and more exciting. Maybe one day one of those girls will come and work for Reading Room, now that would be cool!
1 Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Australia, Building Australian ICT Skills – Presentation to the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems – 26 September 2006, Commonwealth of Australia, 2006, p.5.
2 Polesel, J. & Teese R., The next step report 2006 on the destinations of Year 12 completers in Queensland, Department of Education and the Arts, Queensland Government, 2006. p.15.
(Flickr photo: Krista76)
by Lela
4 Responses
A lot probably depends on the workplace. Some workplaces have more professional cultures and others I’ve had experience with make politically incorrect jokes ad nauseum and take youngsters to strip clubs for their 18th. In the internet age where there is a public culture of ‘anything goes’, that does not sit well with the professional culture of ‘political correctness’. I think this can be confusing to some men who may feel threatened that they are going to offend women – as well they might.
I can imagine employers passing over an employee they didn’t think would fit in with the drinking culture (eg Muslim) and I’m not sure whether or not that is discrimination if nights out at the pub are the typical bonding method. The same could happen when considering hiring women if the men typically indulge in politically incorrect banter. I’m unsure whether employers are legitimately allowed to make such choices or whether they are required to hire regardless and modify such practices to fit the expecations of the new employee?
I thought about going into the industry at one point but was put off by the lack of women and the male dominated culture. The idea of being constantly surrounded by men who would not necessarily respect my values put me off and I also questioned whether I’d have a chance competing against men.
Ah yes that is a good point about using the term girls, in the context of this article I used the term girls as I was talking around the TTYA event which is aimed at those of school age. Really sorry to hear about your negative experience in an IT workplace hope you are somewhere better now!
Perhaps the greatest barrier to women entering traditionally male-dominated professions is the inexplicable insistence of both men and women to refer to women as ‘girls’. It’s incredibly condescending, partonising, and completely unnecessary in the 21st century.
I will echo your friends’ experience however. I was the only female in a male IT workplace a few years ago. I ended up quitting after only a month because the sexism, racism, and bullying went on unnoticed and without reprimand. The final straw was when a 18 year old colleague put a screensaver of a woman in a bikini on his computer (it looked straight out of Ralph or some other cheesy men’s mag) and when I found the courage to complain I was so appalled with the mishandling of the situation I was too ashamed to turn up to the office ever again as the manager dobbed me in as the complainant.
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