IT consultancy ThoughtWorks Australia has launched a new initiative aimed at encouraging more girls and young women to pursue careers in technology, Girls in IT.
The pivotal questions are, why are girls not interested in studying technology subjects at school, and, what can be done to motivate them to do so?
Women account for less than 15% of the people working in technology in Australia, and 52% of the total population. Girls are just not choosing to study technology-related subjects. Findings from a study conducted by the NSW Department of Women reveal that 35% of Year 8 girls choose ICT subjects compared to only 17% of girls in Year 10, a 50% decline in take up.
Girls in IT also aims to “influence the influencers” by way of getting parents, teachers, and careers advisers, excited about IT careers.
I’ve talked to many young women about IT as a career and heard again and again that they’re ‘not that kind of person’. There’s a widespread perception that this industry is full of geeky males and while that’s true, it’s not the whole story; there is a little diversity in the industry as a whole, and a lot of diversity in particular workplaces.
That said, I wouldn’t encourage anyone to be a girly girl and a senior IT person; those prejudices aren’t just held by teenage girls.
Hey guys,
Just finished Master’s in IT Mgmt in June, and since freshman year of undergrad this is always a topic that comes up. Personal experience – girls seems to have a lower incidence of the social awkwardness that lends itself to a career in IT. Since they naturally do well in the real world, it’s more rare to find them fall back on technology as an environment to which they belong, since they already do it fairly well. This is just my $0.02, and usually the consensus the male nerds come up with when they;re being honest about it. :)
Maybe a good avenue would be to enable girls to see how easy it is to make social sites and other apps that interest them with a plugin-based app builder like Yahoo’s. Instant application of their ideas and without the nerdy mess of actual code. Look at it as a “gateway drug” to girls in IT. It starts by being a nice app that does something they want, and then prompts them to ask “Well… what else could I do?”
After all, none of you fell out of the womb writing Ruby, at one point you were exposed to HTML tags or LOGO.
:)
Social awkwardness lends itself to a career in IT, making it a more attractive career option for males? Interesting POV… anyone else picked up on that?