Women in IT: How to combat misconceptions

Rebecca Parsons, chief technology officer at IT consultancy ThoughtWorks, picked out both Microsoft and IBM as leading technology firms when it comes to women-friendly policies. This is noticeable: when V3.co.uk asked six of the leading technology firms for a discussion on women in technology, IBM and Microsoft were the most interested. Google and Yahoo answered with relatively short feedback on some of the issues, while SAP and Oracle did not comment at all.

“An impressive number of senior women in IT have passed through IBM and particular mention goes to their mentoring programme as being instrumental in their career successes. Microsoft has put diversity targets into management performance measures, showing its commitment to diversity hiring,” Parsons said.

Parsons also noted how the IT sector had changed to encompass a broader skill set but that this had not yet filtered down to those thinking about a career in the industry.

"Currently the industry is perceived as a place were people work in isolation, writing code for days and weeks and years on end, with little interaction with the business or even others," she said.

“Software development, particularly using Agile methods, requires a team of individuals, working closely together with each other and interacting daily with representatives from the business. Software development has become a very social profession. Even individuals in less technical disciplines with the right kind of reasoning and structured problem solving skills can be productive contributors to software development teams.

“I also believe strongly that as work in the area of ICT4D [Information and Communication Technology for Development] becomes more prominent, the sector will be seen as addressing more important problems and meeting more pressing human needs."

Parsons said female role models were essential for individuals to imagine their own participation in the IT profession.

“In addition to changing the perception of the nature of the work in the industry, increasing the visibility of women already in the industry provides an existence proof of sorts that the industry is actually accepting of women,” she said.