Chicks in IT: Any statistics available? 2

[jimoblak]

Please excuse the title: no disrespect is intended toward the ladies (or any men that consider themselves as 'chicks'). I just wanted a catchy 'must read' title...

I just received an advertisement for MS Windows Server 2003 which pictures a 20-something woman standing in a room full of rack servers. I've noticed a lot of women appearing in IT advertising lately. Are advertisers picturing women for the same reason that they do in beer & automotive commercials or is there a growing market of female IT professionals that advertisers are trying to relate to?

When I started teaching computers, my classes were nearly all male. I'm noticing a growing female student population and was curious if this is part of a greater trend. Does anyone know where I could find gender (and possibly ethnic/race) data on the IT workforce? As an instructor that wants to diversify classes, it helps to market the classes by demonstrating the growing opportunites for all in IT.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[dvader0571]

My two cents worth.

I started in IT in the early nineties and have seen a growing trend of females in the business. I went MTI Business College to get my degree and half the class was female. Note that I took a specific courses for Computer Programming. Namely they taught us Visual Basic 6, C, and C++ (which I love). Many of the drop outs (at the C class was the big Wall) were the male figures (a couple females) however the females in the class were just as analytical and technical in nature to manage what they were doing, even if they weren't sure why.

Today I work in a school district as a programmer and there are just as many femalw programmers as male here. They range in skill as does any programmer but there is no indication that they are there for the guys but because they love what they do. Alot like SQLSister and stella740pl indicated.

Solving problems is the key to programming and from my experience one, no matter gender can be a great programmer if they are willing to do that.

 

[Skittle]

I have always been disapointed by the low percentage of females I have encountered in my 16 year IT career.

I wish 99% were female ( I'm still not married ).

:O)




Dazed and confused

 

[mrasad]

My ex boss was a female and she was very good. It was a male dominated IT department, and it was nice to have a female around the place.

Is it harder for females to get into IT? is their a perception that IT is a guy thing?

 

[wolluf]

Odd - when I started in IT (for real) at start of 80's, I was encouraged by what appeared to be nearly 50% male/female breakdown (ie, c. 60/40 male/female) - plus a refreshing non-sexist attitude prevailing (apart from among 'senior' managers who actually new sweet FA about IT - perhaps nothing's changed there then!).

However, that situation seems to have been unravelling ever since (my last job - first 'permanent' position for 14 years - had ALL male development staff - c. 50 people - just 3 admin staff were female).

I find this totally discouraging (evenly mixed sex workplaces are much more pleasant places to work) & confusing. Given that there have been some advances towards equality in the workplace generally - even if not as many as should be - ie, equality! - why is IT going backwards. Women are just as good at bullshitting! - major requirement for consultants, and of technical people I've worked with, I'd judge a greater percentage of women competent or better. This may be the explanation - its tough for bullshitting consultants when competent techinal people keep telling the truth (ie, you're wrong!) - so perhaps the answer has been to employ more (not so competent) men. Women may be more likely to communicate the rubbish that goes on in many IT departments (which may jeopardise management bonuses) to the 'wrong' (ie, right) people.

Vive la difference!

 

[CuteGeek]

Hey boys and Girls...Happy New Year

I started in the IT department 6 years ago on the helpdesk. Since I was dabbling in everything from the network, database, and programming I found what was best for me and kept my attention. I am now a Crystal Report Developer and work with sql just as much. I still run into 2 or 3 females out of 12 males.

 

[wmichael]

While not eentirely hard facts, I can say with a huge amount of confidence that females tend to be better DBA's than males.

I'd bet that if you broke out the different disciplines in IT, you would see a larger percentage of femal DBAs when comparing to things like Network Admins.

*Every* companmy I have worked for, consulted with or just plain knew folks at had women DBAs.

And the databases were pretty spanky, I tell you.

*Every* Oracle training class I attended had more women than men, and 60% had female instructors.

Funny. I recently became director of an IT organization, and half of my staff are women! I was blown away. I am seeing more and more women becoming my peers in my industry, as well as getting more applications from women than men.


~wmichael

"small change can often be found under seat cushions"