Why is networking important? It is important for getting jobs, and learning things and just existing. Life happens because of the people we know and what we learn from them. In the article, Dr. Fitzgerald notes that some of the people who gave her ideas were on Systers, “the world’s largest email community of technical women in computing.” Systers is an online community hosted by the Anita Borg Institute that brings together young and old women in technology with each other. It is a wonderful resource through which women receive ideas and mentoring, share their accomplishments, and talk about what it means to be a woman in technology. I found this list late in my career, but it has done much to help me realize that some of the things I experience are not because I am “me,” but rather because I am a woman in technology. I read emails that tell stories that I have experienced almost exactly – different people, but the same discussion and the same issues. What is wonderful about the list is that the Systers give advice – “this is how I got out of that situation” or “this is what I would do.” So, it is more than a place to complain, but rather a place to get support and guidance. When you join you promise to keep the emails secret (so there can be honest discussion), so I cannot give you explicit examples. But, I recommend it to any woman in technology; and I recommend you learn more about the activities of the Anita Borg Institute.

Now, back to Barbie. If you haven’t heard the story, here is the line. When Mattel brings a new career to Barbie, it puts up some ideas online and people vote. In addition, Mattel holds some focus groups. So, when it became known that a computer engineer was one of the careers being considered for Barbie, an email came over Systers announcing that we could vote. I’ll be truthful – even though I have not played with a Barbie in many decades, I voted. I sent emails to friends and colleagues and encouraged them to vote. When all was said and done the “middle age women” (probably most of us from Systers) voted for computer engineer while the focus groups (all girls who actually play with the doll) voted for media anchor. Mattel decided to introduce both careers this year and they will be available this fall. This was all announced by Mattel (including the voting), but several weeks later, the Wall Street Journal broke the story that we old women were stealing the election. As a former resident of Chicago, I couldn’t believe they were claiming there was a problem – I had only voted once! (For those of you who don’t know, Chicago is known for voting irregularities.) The story was picked up by the Chicago Tribune and later the St. Louis Post Dispatch. How do I know this? Because I received anonymous and not-so-anonymous clippings of the story in my email and my snail mailbox. My colleagues were making sure I knew we had stolen the election.

To me, the real story is why these women took the time to vote and to share the idea of voting with others. What did they see that others don’t. What they see is that the number of young women opting for a career in computing is dropping every year, while the problems of women in computing in the workforce are not going away as they are in other professions. For some reason, it is no longer seen as “the thing to do.” Dr. Fitzgerald says it well in the article “What Computer Engineer Barbie will do, I think, is broaden the realm of not only what is possible, but what feels accessible—being smart, confident, and tech-savvy without sacrificing femininity or fun.” We believe that if Barbie can be a computer engineer that it will open more doors for young women to pursue this path. And, that is a good thing.

Why do we care? Obviously, those of us who have been in the trenches for a while would like to think that the pathways we opened will stay open for those who have the interest. It is more important than that. The Standish Report, which is cited all over the industry (even though it has many methodological problems), tells us that somewhere between 20% and 70% of all systems development projects are not successes. Some are out and out failures, some are just challenges. But, the point is that we, as an industry, do not get many clear cut wins. We also know that diverse the design teams generally produce better results. So, why do we want to see more women in technology? Obviously, we want the output of the industry to be better. If computer engineer Barbie will help, then I am all for it.

Mattel will probably do quite well with this decision. I know I have already purchased my own computer engineer Barbie and I am sure others on the Systers list have done so too. Those are purchases Mattel would not otherwise have gotten. This is in addition to all of those Barbies that will be given to age appropriate girls.

Her entry was: “Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved computers. So much so that my 5 year old daughter knows how to use the basic side of computers as well. I’m proud of myself for instilling technology in her. I’m a single parent wanting so bad to progress career wise and I just genuinely wish that I was given a chance to prove myself. Winning this course will be a door opening for me in IT. It’ll give me a chance to better not only my future but my daughter’s. Thanks in advance.” [sic]

Centrine currently works as an IT Administrator and she has been in this position for nearly four years but would love to progress her career in IT. She has chosen to study the Cisco CCNA course because: “Cisco teaches the ability to install, operate and troubleshoot different networks. I enjoy solving IT related problems and I get a ‘buzz’ out of it.”

She says, “I’ve been yearning to progress academically for a long time now.  I’ve approached so many companies that help single parents like me but unfortunately, we do have a stigma in this country that states that if you’re working full time, you CAN afford to fund your own studies – this is not the case at all. Some of us work to provide for our families and pay for basic needs, not much is left over at the end of the month to pay towards my career. I have just received my first stage of course materials and can’t wait to get started with my studies!”

So, Centrine is well on her way to becoming one of the much sought after “Cyberellas” that the IT industry is crying out for!  Maybe her daughter will follow in her glass slippers when she is older and become a Cyberella too! Anyone who entered this competition should have received an email offering them a discount and how to claim it but if you would like any more information please contact Kate Lilley at the NITLC on 01636 612226.

We differentiate ourselves from most job boards in that we don’t just advertise jobs – we offer professional development training courses, networking events, role model profiles, industry news, research white papers. We hope that as this growing and vibrant community for women in IT that we’ll hopefully stand a good chance of success!

Fingers crossed we win the award – we’ll keep you updated!

Today is the 24^th March and the day of the 2010 Budget. But that’s not all – it’s also Ada Lovelace Day – a day to celebrate the achievements of women in technology, in the name of one of the world’s first computer programmers from the 19^th century. We, like thousands of others pledged to blog about the subject today – so that’s what we are doing!

The idea is that today, everyone blogs about a woman in IT that they admire. However over the past few years I have met so many impressive women from the technology world that it’s impossible to pick just one to blog about. So instead I am going to write about ‘the ultimate woman in IT’ – what qualities and characteristics I admire in female technologists and have seen in many women that I have met. So here they are:

• Skilled – good women in the IT sector have both strong technical skill but also superior soft skills that enable them to do their job well
• Strong – some would argue that to be a woman in IT you have to be ‘one of the boys’. But I don’t think this is the case – you need to gain merit as a female. However to do this you do need to be pragmatic, strong willed and determined.
• Sharing – I think it’s important for women in IT to network – share information, contacts and stories. Some female techies don’t want to be recognised as a role model and don’t like being labeled as a ‘woman in IT’. For me it’s important that as many women as possible stand and be counted and share their experiences to encourage others, whether it’s through events, mentoring, school visits or any other means. This can provide great inspiration.
• Nice! – It’s not a very good descriptor but it applies to any sector – people want to deal with people who are ‘nice’. This means approachable, happy to give advice or speak on a panel and thinking about other people.
• Passion – The best women in IT that I have met have all had this trait – IT is not just a job, it’s a major part of their life.
• Supportive – Time and time again we hear women in IT say they would like more support from female bosses and colleagues. The most admirable women in IT will do just this and collaborate, not compete.

Those are my qualities of the ultimate woman in IT. Some examples of great women in IT can be found on our role models page here: http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/role-models. Who is your most admired woman in IT?

There is some great technology out there but unfortunately we don’t have a crystal ball to see into the future (hopefully a female technologist will invent one!) However if we did have one, we’d use it to see where women in IT would be in the future.

A report by the Government Equalities Office says that almost two thirds of UK businesses are missing out on female talent and suffering as a consequence. It also revealed that if we continue at the current rate of progress it will take 60 years for there to be an equal number of men and women in senior roles! If the government has recognised that this needs to change (which it seems it has with Gordon Brown saying there are too few women in Britain’s boardrooms), then shouldn’t we be doing more about it?

In our recent survey we asked our female technologists what they thought would happen to women in IT over the next five years – we got some interesting and different answers:

• Shortage of new entrants because Science and Technology is not popular in schools, not seen as a girl-thing.
• More women in very senior roles.
• I think the number of women will increase as the younger generation is very much the digital native generation; however the level to which it increases relies on our intervention now.
• They will continue to lead & be innovative but will not always get credit for it or equality of pay.
• There will be more in the industry, more start up IT businesses with women CEOs.
• One respondent simply said “not much”.

Which crystal ball prediction do you agree with? And what would you like to see done to give women in IT a boost?

Not only is today Internation Women’s Day, it’s also the fifth birthday of womenintechnology.co.uk, so we asked the women in our network what their ‘birthday wish’ for women in IT would be. The top answers were: a closing of the gender pay gap, more respect and more support in the workplace from both employers and fellow employees.

One respondent said “[I wish] that people would assume [women in IT] have interesting, innovative and strategic thinking without them having to work so hard to constantly establish credibility”. Another said she wished that women would “support each other rather than compete”.

The needs of working mums were also addressed with calls for women to be openly recognised as doing a great job even if in part-time work, as well as for more workplace benefits options surrounding things like childcare. Other wishes were for more role models for women in IT, more women in senior IT positions and for women to trust their own skills and abilities more.

As one respondent pointed out, it has been 40 years since the Equal Pay Act and although we’ve made progress we still haven’t closed the gender pay gap, so that’s definitely a big hope for the future. These results show that we still have a way to go until women are on a par with men in the IT world but what’s great is that these ‘wishes’ are realistic ones that are within our reach. Since womenintechnology was established five years ago women have made great advances in the sector. We’re looking forward to the next five years and what will happen next!

Problem statement/issue
==========================
One of challenges facing recruitment of women in IT is overcoming the
perception that IT is for men. This is especially important among young
women faced with choices about their field of study and career. Because
IT is perceived as a male dominated field, women might not even be aware
of career opportunities in IT. Women who overcome this hurdle to obtain
a career in IT are often faced with work/life balance issues that
threaten their job security. IT careers have tremendous potential to
overcome this challenge. Finally, as women seek to advance their
career, they might encounter the glass ceiling. Finding the confidence
to challenge the perception of men as IT leaders can be intimidating.
Where can women go to discuss these challenges? What relationships are
important to overcoming these challenges? This panel discussion will
attempt to address these challenges.

Solution/activity/project
=========================
This panel will focus on ideas, activities and solutions to address the
challenges facing women in higher education IT. They will present
success stories about women overcoming challenges. Topics covered will
include:

• A wiki where women can share experiences and advice.
• Internships and volunteer opportunities to draw more women into IT.
• Mentoring programs to help women advance their careers.
• Confidence-building methods to help women pursue advancement.
• Workshops that teach women how to improve negotiating skills to
promote advancement.
• Flexible work environments and benefits to support a better
work/life balance.

Outcome
=========
Women who attend this panel session will feel encouraged to find better
satisfaction with their careers in IT. New ideas for the advancement of
women in IT are expected to arise. Men who attend this panel session
will find more satisfactory relationships with women in the workplace.
By putting into action ideas from this panel session, the EDUCAUSE Women
in IT Constituent Group will move closer to achieving their goal of
supporting the recruitment, retention and advancement women in IT.

Relevance/importance
======================
While the role of women in IT might be increasing, they are often the
only female at the table. Events such as this panel session will
provide support and encouragement for women, leading to better
satisfaction with their careers. New ideas might arise to facilitate
the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in IT. Men
attending this panel session will better understand the role of women in
IT and develop improved working relationships.

To celebrate womenintechnology’s fifth birthday next month, we want to hear from you! As always, your opinions are important to us, so we want to hear what you think about women in IT today and over the next 5 years. We’ve put a survey of 5 questions together so it should only take 5 minutes to fill out.

So when you’re taking a quick coffee break, click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z2L6GV6 and tell us what you think. We’ll be publishing the results in a couple of weeks so check back here soon. Thanks!

Claire Goodwin, who is heading up the Women in Technology Recruitment Services

With the success of our job board and networking events, womenintechnology.co.uk now has a growing community of almost 6000 people – so thanks for being a part of it! We’ve helped many women in or interested in technology find new jobs in the industry and now we’re stepping up those efforts a bit more.

Over time we’ve had more and more clients – and jobseekers – tell us that they found our job board and career portal a useful tool, but that they wanted more assistance in the recruitment process. With a person handling everything from applications to offers, everyone’s lives are made a bit easier. So, that’s what we’re pushing in 2010.

Women in Technology Recruitment Services now has a team of four experienced recruiters and we want to build upon the success of womenintechnology.co.uk to continue helping increase the flow of female candidates into IT. There are so many firms out there who would love to hire more technical women but they just can’t find them. We’re here to give organisations access to a wider and more diverse talent pool. While we are best placed to source female talent, our short lists will reflect the diverse make-up of the workplace and will include high calibre male IT professionals too – men haven’t been put off using us if we have a job they’re interested in! What’s more, many men think it’s a great idea as they work in all male teams and appreciate that women can bring different skills to the table.

For more information about women in technology’s recruitment services please visit: http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/recruitment-services or email Claire Goodwin, cgoodwin@womenin.co.uk.

Every year we say “a new year, a new start!” And in this case: “a new decade, a new start”. Let’s hope that’s the case when it comes to the dreaded gender pay gap. But results from a survey by silicon.com indicate that instead of the situation improving, the difference between the pay of men and women in IT is getting bigger.

Just take a look at this graph – the results are quite striking:

Far more women than men are in low paid jobs with the majority (35%) earning less than £25,000 a year, compared to just 14% of men. And interestingly whereas the number of women in this pay bracket has risen since 2008, the number of men has decreased. When it comes to salaries in excess of £40,000 the number of men far exceed the number of women – with the amount of men earning top bucks outnumbering women by more than 2:1.

When it came to bonuses, although more women than men took home extra cash in 2009, men received higher amounts. 65% of women who received bonuses got less than £5000 compared to 47% of men and 10% of the males had bonuses of over £20,001, whereas the number of women receiving that reward was: zero.

It always comes back to the same question: why? The main answer seems to be that many women put their career progression on hold due to family commitments, leaving the top jobs open for the men. The huge difference between maternity and paternity leave allowances doesn’t help this situation either (although that looks like it may change). But it’s not just the women that are missing out here – businesses need the input of women, especially at senior level.

Remote working, schemes to help women back into work after maternity leave, mentoring – these are all practices businesses should be looking at so that we can change the look of the graph above and have more women at the top of IT. As I said before, it’s a new decade – let’s hope it signals a new start!

Whoever said that women aren’t good with technology should take a look at this story. According to a new survey, British women would rather lose their boyfriend than their phone. When asked what they would most hate to lose, the third most popular answer from the 4,000 women with 40% of the vote was their mobile phone. Boyfriends came in at number five, just below best friends. (Somehow I think if the question had been ‘would you choose your phone over your boyfriend’ the results would be different but let’s not let that ruin a good story!) Boyfriends will have to take comfort in the fact that they were chosen above pets and diamond rings, but sorry boys it seems that we love our phones just a little bit more!

We’re always going on about why IT is a great place for women to work – opportunities to travel abroad, the chance to make a difference, exciting projects. It’s all very well saying that but sometimes these words can go in one ear and out the other pretty quickly – so it’s great to see examples of real women doing great things with technology.

I recently heard about a partnership between Vodafone and the UN (the long winded version is the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation Technology Partnership!) This is a programme which aims to implement technology in developing countries – to allow both general development and to help with disaster relief.

Vodafone works with womenintechnology and they told us about their Secondment programme where their employees are placed with the World Food Programme for a year. They’re given a grant to cover a modest salary and their expenses, all the support they need and the chance to really make a difference to people’s lives. This year, four people are taking part in the programme – one being Salma Farouque from Vodafone Australia who’s now working as an ICT Specialist for Emergency Telecommunications in Kampala, Uganda after spending seven years working as a Solutions Designer in the Technology Division in Sydney.

During her year in Uganda, Salma will work as an IT Specialist, to support co-ordination in countries in the Eastern, Central and Southern Africa region. Due to the ongoing conflicts in the area, the need for emergency security telecommunications is greater than ever and the role Salma is working on this year, will make a huge difference to humanitarian workers from 30 UN agencies and around 100 non government organisations in the region. You can read her blog here.

It’s great to see that working in technology really can make a difference – and it’s even better to see female technologists being involved. Let’s hope we see more schemes like this in the future as it sounds like a brilliant opportunity.

I especially liked the idea of changing the language of job descriptions to attract more women, and to use more competency based interviewing, which allows interviewees to highlight their soft skills and give examples of how they have tackled a particular situation (allowing employers to separate those who really can walk the walk from those who can just talk the talk.) Both these things would help female candidates who are generally not as good as men at selling their skills and abilities.

To read more, download your free copy of the “Fostering A More Diverse Infrastructure And Operations Department” here: www.forrester.com/womenintechnology.

Although we’re not hosting any more networking events this year, there are plenty of events being run by other organisations that you can go along to during December. We believe networking is one of the most important things you can do for your career enhancement / progression so have a look through this list of events (they’re all happening in London so apologies to everyone outside of the capital) and get along to those which are of interest to you.

As ever please contact the relevant organiser if you have any questions and if you’d like to see other events listings, click here: http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/events/

Tuesday 1st December: City Women’s Network: Female FTSE Report 2009 – Where to from here?

Wednesday 2nd December: Management Today – IT Innovation Debate (breakfast meeting)

Thursday 3rd December: Inspiring Women Series: Plug into Mentoring

Friday 4th December: CIO Executive Council Women in IT Networking Breakfast

Tuesday 8th December: MasterCard European Women’s Leadership Network

Tuesday 8th December: Women in Telecoms and Technology Group (WiTT) Meeting

Thursday 10th December: BCSWomen Christmas Networking Event

Tuesday 15th December: WES Shape the Future: Step up to the Challenge – networking and celebration of women in STEM

And we’ll look forward to seeing you at our events in 2010!

Thanks so much!

Is it the end of the road for women’s networks? Elizabeth Harrin from The Glass Hammer blog wrote an interesting piece last week based on this question after attending an event hosted by Morgan Stanley, which I also happened to go to. It’s certainly an interesting question – women’s groups, networks etc always seem to be a controversial topic as many query whether they do more harm than good.

See Elizabeth’s post here for the full story, but in a nutshell it revolves around this quote: “We have to stop bringing groups of women together to talk about what we know is going wrong….We have to convince our companies to stop fixing the women. The underlying assumption with all of those programmes [mentoring, executive coaching, etc] is that there must be something wrong with women.”

Being a women’s network, of course we are going to defend them! But, with good reason. The first point I would make is that the woman behind these words, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, seems to be referring to “women-only” groups. And I would say I agree that these are not the most constructive ways of encouraging progress. Womenintechnology is women orientated but not exclusive – in fact we always encourage men to attend our events and love it when they do! I also agree that women discussing what is going wrong is not a particularly helpful activity. Our events and training courses often do discuss the problems that women face and allow them to share experiences, but we then provide advice to help these women tackle these problems in the future. We often gear them towards skills we know that women – in general – struggle with.

Then comes the ‘but’. I don’t think it’s true that the underlying assumption is that there must be something wrong with women. Networking groups, mentoring, coaching and other female orientated groups and networks exist because it is no secret that there are inequalities in the workplace. Their aim is to provide support to women who often feel isolated in a male dominated environment and help them feel more confident and happy in their work. What’s wrong with that?

There are many interesting responses to Elizabeth’s blog that are also worth a read. What do you think? Leave your comments here.

And so another story on the gender pay gap. The good news? The gender pay gap has narrowed over the past year and is apparently at an all time low. The bad news? It has only dropped by 1%. Let’s look at the main stats that the ONS has published:

• Hourly wage rates have increased for full time female workers by 4% to £13.43
• Hourly wage rates for full time male workers have increased by only 2.8% but are still higher at £16.07
• Gender pay gap is in favour of women working part time who earn an average of £156 a week as opposed to £144 for men
• Pay gap is now 16.4%
• Public sector pay increased by 3% compared to 1% in private sector

Despite the fact that I know there is definitely a gender pay gap, I am always a little skeptical about the accuracy when looking at these figures – because I wonder if they compare like for like. For example – do they compare salaries of a male computer programmer with their female equivalent? Or do they compare a CEO with a receptionist?

However when reading this article I noticed the point that was raised by Harriet Harman, who is quoted as saying “Most women work part-time because they juggle the important work of looking after children and older relatives. That’s where the discrimination really bites.” The article then states: “The TUC calculates that there is a part-time gender pay gap of 35.2%, based on comparing the hourly earnings of men working full-time (£16.07) with women working part-time (£10.40).”

I thought this was really insightful . Yes a lot of women are getting paid less because they work less hours and yes the gender pay gap here is positive. But there is an inherent problem with this setup –the fact is that the corporate world makes it difficult for many women with family responsibilities to return to work, leading them to part time roles which pay them substantially less than they’d get if they returned to work full time. Once again it links back to the same issues: maternity and paternity leave and more support in the workplace. But as Harriet Harman says herself, the Equality Bill will help women progress even further. Let’s hope she’s right.

It has certainly been a busy week when it comes to female related news. So many things have caught my eye that I have wanted to blog about, I don’t know where to start. So I’ll start at the beginning!

I saw this article in HR magazine saying that over a third of young female employees suffer from bullying at work. This abuse ranges from excessive monitoring to insulting remarks and two thirds of the women affected said the bullying came from more senior women. At first I found this shocking, but then I recalled some quotes we’ve had over the years from women who have faced problems, not from their male managers, but from female colleagues, and realised that maybe the problem of women vs women is more prevalent than we thought. So I pulled out some quotes from female technologists that we have surveyed over the last couple of years that have touched on this issue:

• “The biggest obstacles that I have had to face have all come from women, not men. Some women see it as their solemn duty to bully, bribe, undermine, tease and generally obstruct in any way possible a woman who chooses a technical career. This starts in junior school and continues all the way to the boardroom! We need action to re-educate the ignorant section of the female population that it is not a threat to their femininity if some girls choose this career path.”
• “As an ambitious single woman in a technology company, I sometimes get frustrated by the extent to which some working mothers are carried by their peers.”
• “Female managers who do not have family are often ‘worse’ than men towards the needs of mothers.”
• “Most women senior managers have come up the ranks making enormous personal sacrifices and see no reason why the rest of the female population cannot do the same.”
• “[Men and women's leadership] styles differ totally! Generally much easier to work for a man!”

Of course there are lots of women that have faced problems from male colleagues too, especially in IT as it’s such a male dominated field. But it struck me how many women were working against each other, when in fact female solidarity is crucial if we want to work together and break the glass ceiling. We need more positive female role models, encouraging women and helping them, not providing yet another obstacle.

Have you experienced a tough time from a female manager? Share your experiences – and your words of encouragement – here!

This got me thinking about how this is relevant to women in the workplace, women on the board and more specifically women in technology. What these figures show, and what this article in the FT also highlights, is that women have a huge amount of purchasing power and this could be a way of helping us out of the recession. With women representing such a big proportion of society and controlling so much consumer spending, how can companies afford not to have women on their teams and management? How are predominantly male teams going to be able to relate to their customer base effectively and understand its needs? The simple answer is: they can’t. Ultimately it’s going to be the forward thinking companies that employ and promote plenty of women that will have the edge when it comes to boosting sales, keeping customers happy and staying ahead of the competition.

Organised by the University and gender group FAST-DOT Project, the seminar “Women in Science and Engineering: Inspiring Perspectives from Academia and Industry” features leading females from these industries and the academic world. They will share experiences and discuss what can be done to encourage more women into the fields and help them progress their careers in these areas.

According to STV, Dr. Maria Cataluna, one of the event organisers, said: “This will be an informal event where the audience will have the opportunity to engage and ask questions to our guest speakers, who are truly inspirational scientists and engineers. We will discuss issues that ultimately affect everyone, and so we hope that male engineers and scientists will also participate in the meeting – particularly those that are interested in improving the gender balance in their groups and organisations.”

This sounds like a great event – I’d be really interested in what these women have to say!