Gender diversity: The key to success Recruiting and retaining women in information technology: a CIO’s perspective
M By Samantha Liscio Senior Vice President, Enterprise Planning & Reporting at eHealth Ontario
ost IT people would admit that women are underrepresented in generalist IT roles, but it’s especially noticeable in IT leadership and cybersecurity positions. I personally know a number of competent and tenured female IT leaders who have carved out exciting and fulfilling careers in our industry, so what’s attracted them to the industry and keeps them engaged while so many of their peers have elected to leave? At this year’s Gartner Symposium and IT Expo in Orlando, it was apparent that the ratio of men to women hasn’t changed since I first attended back in 2008. Gartner’s Symposium is the preeminent gathering of CIOs and IT Executives and, interestingly, it’s the only large-scale event I attend where the line for the men’s room is longer than that of the women’s room. Published statistics confirm my observations. The proportion of women in technology has effectively stalled and, in some roles, even declined. In the U.S. in 2008, women held 25% of IT jobs – this has dropped from 36% in 1991. In information security, women represent a meagre 11% of the profession. Furthermore, women in information technology careers who are aged between 25 and 34 are increasingly reporting dissatisfaction with their careers. 56% of these women are leaving their jobs at, what would seem, the highlight of their career, which is twice the quitrate for men. According to a Reuters study, 30% of 450 technology executives said that their teams had no women in leadership positions at all. So, it seems that women are being left behind in the technology sector, while the sector itself continues to grow and flourish. The U.S. Department of Labor has estimated 1.8 million IT jobs will be created
24 | Australian Cyber Security Magazine
by 2018, so something needs to be done to draw from that talent pool that makes up 50% of the population. While it can be argued that academic and professional interest in technology is waning across both genders, the reduction we’re seeing is way more pronounced in women. For example, in 2008, 57% of all bachelor’s degrees in computer and information science were in technology, while only 18% were awarded to women. This is a significant decrease from the mid-1980s, when the number of technology degrees awarded to women was 37%. Furthermore, the employment situation no better. In 2008, 57% of all jobs were held by women. 25% percent of these were IT-related jobs, which was a drop from 36% in 1991.
Challenging Times The challenge we have is how we encourage more women to participate in the growing field of technology and, especially, how we convince women to apply for higherlevel management roles. The Anita Borg Institute analysed a number of Fortune 500 companies who have at least three female directors. Interestingly, these companies all reported a higher return on sales of at least 42%. So, what would there be such a gender gap? We all know that unconscious bias and discrimination exists across all industries, but it seems to be more visible in the industries that are underpinned by the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects. This negatively impact motivation and productivity and leads to women eventually exiting from the industry and going into more traditionally female-oriented jobs.