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07/09/05
IT Industry must transform itself in order to attract women professionals Intellect and DTI research outlines why so many women are leaving the IT industry and recommends what should be done to encourage them to stay
Research launched today by Intellect, the trade association for the UK hi-tech industry, and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has shown that many women professionals are leaving the IT industry because of the long hours culture and the male-dominated nature of the sector.
The women participating in the ‘Women in IT Industry’ report considered work-life balance, the male-dominated environment that prevails in the sector, the industry culture and company values and practices to be the core reasons why the sector is unattractive to women.
Commenting on the findings of the report John Higgins, Intellect Director General said: “ The UK IT industry is world leading, but it won’t stay that way for long if we continue to haemorrhage valuable skilled women professionals from the sector. This report has outlined why women are leaving. If we want our organisations to grow then we must open our ears to the reports findings and recommendations. We must take action to ensure that we are doing all that we can to recruit, motivate and retain women within our industry.”
Meg Munn, DTI Deputy Minister for Women and Equality said: “ It is vital for the UK's productivity and competitiveness that the IT industry harnesses all of its skilled labour force potential. To meet the continuing growth in the use of IT, we need to encourage more people to consider IT related careers - and ensure that professional women in this sector are able to contribute fully at all stages in their career. Through the Intellect Women in IT Forum, Government will continue to work with Industry to action the recommendations within this report and to ensure that more women are encouraged to move into IT careers and stay in them.”
The research also found that there are very few opportunities for part-time work in the IT industry, especially at a senior level. In addition there is a perception that those that do work part-time are not undertaking the same calibre of work as full-time staff. Many of the women surveyed said they would also be more inclined to stay if there was less pressure to work long hours in a full-time role.
The fact that the IT industry is male-dominated made many women feel that there was a glass ceiling, and that they had to work harder than male colleagues to achieve success. There is also an ‘old boys club’ approach in some parts of the industry, with informal male networking contributing to the perceived or real exclusion of women from many job opportunities in IT.
The culture within IT companies often resulted in women feeling undervalued because some of the ‘softer’ management skills went unrecognised. Some respondents said that companies were driven primarily by short-term profit, resulting in poor customer care and exploitation of staff.
Overall the report found that in order to attract more women into the industry in the future, companies first need to retain women now, as it is these women who will act as role models and mentors. The report says that to retain women the IT sector should consider diversity training for those in the industry who are ensure of equality in the workplace, business mentoring, and creating networking opportunities for women.
About the Report Official Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show that there has been a decline in the number of women employed in the IT industry from 27% in 1997 to 21% in 2005. As a result of these figures, the DTI’s Information Technology, Electronics and Communication (ITEC) Skills team and Intellect’s Women in IT Forum decided to carry out research to find out why women are leaving the industry, and what could be done to encourage them to stay.
The ‘Women in the IT Industry report: Phase 2 Research How to retain women in the IT industry”, was conducted by Exemplas. It surveyed forty two women, mainly over 45 years of age, and/or in more senior roles ranging from software developers, programmers and analysts to IT consultants. 76% worked for large companies that had worldwide operations and 48% were managers, directors or vice presidents. More than half of these had already left the industry and thirteen were thinking of leaving. The remaining five were not planning to leave, but suggested ways in which things could be improved to encourage women to stay in the industry.
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