The Great Female Debate

The press has been filled with articles about women being under-represented in this and that and even the comedian Dara O’Briain got himself into hot water this week by the press misunderstanding a comment he made about the BBC’s new policy  to increase the number of women on panel shows.  What he was in fact saying was that even though he supported the policy, he felt it should not be made public as this would make women on panel shows seen as “token” women.  Could this be the same in the IT sector?

The Sunday Times revealed the Top 100 Mid and Large Sized Companies to Work For this week and at the bottom was a promotion for the Top 50 Employers for Women 2014.  What difference should it make?  Surely it’s the best man or indeed woman for the job as opposed to ticking the gender equality box?  Or is it?

The low representation at executive level and near invisibility at board level on technology companies, is down to the “right” women not being available for these tasks.  There are simply not enough women in technology and that scarcity is represented all the way to the top.  Simply enforcing policies similar to the BBC will surely have minimal impact.

You don’t have to look far to see companies like Pinterest, where 70% of the users are female have 100% of its board as male; Google, Facebook and Twitter went public without women on their board; and even Apple only has one woman, former Avon CEO Andrea Jung serving on it’s board.

I read an article towards the end of last year that claimed a report conducted by the European Commission found “Lack of women in ICT sector costs Europe €9bn a year” How is that possible?  Well, here’s how…

For every 1,000 women in the EU with a degree, only 29 have a specialism in ICT, compared to 95 for men and only 4 in those 1,000 will ever work within the ICT sector.  Reports show that women are more likely to leave the sector mid-career

• Only 19.2% of ICT workers have a female superior, whilst 45.2% of non-ICT workers have a female boss
• Firms that have women in higher positions “achieve 35% higher return on equity and 34% better total return to shareholders” when compared with other firms
• The EC came to the figure of €9bn based on the assumption that if women in ICT roles rose by 115,000, an average of €78,000 per female worker would be generated in increased productivity.

Is there not already enough of a skills shortage within the IT sector without making it worse?  If the media continue to dine out on these reports, findings and figures, it is going to do nothing to help improve the image of the ICT sector for future generations of women.

This debate has been around for years and shows no sign of slowing, but what are we actually doing to help change the situation?  Do we need to?  Is it that women are getting overlooked for the top ICT roles or are they simply not out there in the first place?

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Written by Lucy Rawes, Operations Director