Women in the World of Information Technology
It is heartening to see the technology world embrace women in various job positions—more importantly in leadership positions—in recent years.
There are great examples of women leading large, independent software vendors in the current day—including Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Julie Larson-Green, and Tami Reller (Microsoft).
Sheryl Sandberg’s book talks elaborately about why women have been slow in progressing into leadership positions and what can get them there, which echoes what she presented in a TEDWomen talk.
At a diversity conference at Microsoft, one of the compelling points discussed was that “women are better at multitasking than men.” If that is true, why aren’t we seeing more women in the technology world, where multitasking and working under deadlines and pressures is very high—and why is there still a disparity in the pay between men and women?
Women in the US hold only 25 percent of all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs, although they account for 50 percent of the total working population. The numbers are worse in the UK—with 49 percent in the overall workforce and just 17 percent in information technology. It is alarming to see that when taking the SAT, the number of female students indicating computing and information sciences as their intended major has been going down over the years.
As in the case of many problems, the ideal solution is a push and pull mechanism. Women need to take on self-initiatives, be proactive, and be aggressive in establishing a space for themselves in the highly sought after technology or even the larger STEM world. A leadership ambition gap and associated fears are some of the major reasons for the problem at hand. Career vs. family is an ongoing struggle for many women as well.
Many conferences, forums, organizations, discussions, and studies have sprung up to empower women and to help them achieve their professional goals and visions, especially in the technology space. Several prominent leaders are openly discussing the need to give women deserved opportunities—this includes Warren Buffet, who analyzed the situation dating back several decades.
Simultaneously, organizations will have to do their part in creating opportunities, devising a diversified employment portfolio, and enabling women to grow in their professional experience with them. Companies such as Microsoft are doing this proactively, even working at the very early stages with schools and colleges to encourage girls to prepare for a successful career in STEM. It is exciting to see so many recognize the need to support women to grow in the technology space.
A recent study by PayScale is promising because it seems the pay disparity between men and women in the technology world has been going down. With all of these in place, it is time for women to step up, avail themselves of the opportunities, and demonstrate their potential.
