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Study Reveals What Women Want From IT Jobs
amigoro writes "Ever wonder why there are so few women in the IT workplace? It turns out that the typical recruiters sales pitch, which emphasizing job promotion and security, acts to keep women out of the information technology jobs. While about 30 percent indicated they valued careers that afforded them opportunities to perfect skills in technical areas, others said they wanted careers with managerial opportunities. In addition, there was little overlap among the women who reported that managers give up technical skills to develop management skills."
If there's one thing I won't stand for, it's intolerance.
what women don't want from IT jobs is being forced to hang out with all those nerd all day long. I'll post my study on this thesis tomorrow, I promise.
Can we see some pics?
Seriously though, did that line make sense to anyone else?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
This survey is 100% accurate, because they interviewed all 29 females currently working in IT jobs.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Why do we care why women do or do not go into IT? I don't mean this as a flame, I'm just curious, because all the tools are there for women that are there for men. Computers cost as much for a woman as they do for a man, google searches work as well for women as for men, and O'Reilly books are as easily opened by women as by men. Why separate these studies on the lines of gender?
While women represent almost 60 percent of the workforce....
I question this number. Does it seem fishy?
also...
Human-resources personnel need to recognize that women have diverse values and motivations throughout their careers and tailor hiring and retention practices to fit those needs
Since when do employers tailor jobs for their employees? Don't employers post what they want the person to do and the job seekers decide whether they want to apply or not? Or is this only if employers "need" to employ more women in their IT departments.
www.joshferguson.org
Unlike men, who apparently only have a single value and motivation for choosing their career.
Really, I don't get the whole article. They claim there's not many women in IT because recruiters tout the chances for promotion and job security. I have my doubts that anyone, male or female, goes "Man, this job has security and I likely won't be looking for work in 3 months? Well the hell with that. I don't want this job." As to the chances for promotion, does that not fit right in line with the women interviewed and quoted who say they want to move up into IT management?
And then of course there is a question that I always have. If there were few women in IT because they were being told they are too stupid to understand computer or something, I get how that would be a problem. If there's not many women in IT because the type of work and the rewards that IT jobs typically offer are not what many women want, though, then what's the big deal?
Don't get so snippy just because he forgot to enumerate making a delicious dinner and birthing babies.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Who cares?!
Women should do what men do. When a man wants a job, he works and qualifies for it. He does what is expected by the employer. And if it doesn't work out, he does something else.
I don't think it's too much to expect women to play by the expectations of business people. You can twist and spin things any way you like, but the bottom line is that what we are talking about is business changing to meet the expectations of a specific subset of employable people. It just doesn't work quite that way. We're not talking about "challenged" [disabled] people unless you would like to reclassify women as being challenged or disabled in some way. What we're talking about is that somewhere between 45% and 55% of the general employable population who are making a decision about whether or not they want a job based on the criteria and expectations of employers for any given position... in IT or otherwise.
I think it's lovely that women want extras and allowances from their workplace. And hell yes, if an employer WANTS to provide those things then great! There's a match and life goes on happily ever after. I want extras and allowances too! I don't often get them, but that's not enough for me to not work for a living. But what are we talking about? Employers being compelled to provide for women as if they were some "special needs" group? To me, "special needs" people are mentally challenged, sensory challenged or mobility challenged people. If women by virtue of their gender can qualify under one of those categories, then they should probably be afforded special treatment. If not, then why are we always talking about this?!
Why aren't we talking about why there aren't more men doing jobs that are generally populated by women?
I hold there is an idea best identified as "different but equal." We shouldn't be concerned whether or not women want to be involved in a certain profession if that is their choice. If they want it, they will do what other people who want it do. If they would rather not do what it takes, then they shouldn't do the job... and that's largely why they don't I'm guessing.
Would *I* like to see more women in IT? **YES** I like smart women who can appreciate the things I appreciate. That's just about every geek's desire. It's rare, it's a pity, but it's life.
From the Article::
"My parents said we are [only] paying for four years of school and I could
not become a lawyer in four years", 48 year-old CIO said. " I just said
okay, well I want to make a lot of money and so what is the next best
thing? And I did the research and the computing industry was the next big
booming thing"
My first thought:
I have noted throughout my career that the worst IT people are those who are in it for the money or treat it as just a job.
Those managers and co-workers who have a true passion... those who live and breathe for technology: they're the ones that actually get stuff done.
The Digital Sorceress
According to Ace of Base,
All that she wants
Is another baby
She's gone tomorrow, boy.
So I don't know what IT can really offer women.
More Twoson than Cupertino
And the view is a lot better.
10. Women do not like to work 80 hours a week.
09. Women expect to be promoted and IT people do not get promoted.
08. Women expect benefits and maturity leave which is hard to do when on call 24/7/365
07. Women Like having family time, not getting called and having to run because the the company sees the server as more important than their kids.
06. Women know that guys NEVER listen when they give instructions, so telling some one how to fix a computer is pointless.
05. Most women meet their husbands at work, and the IT department is not as good as being an executive assistant.
04. Women like to have others to talk to and geeks only drool when they are around.
03. Women expect to be treated with respect and we all know that IT is never treated with respect.
02. Women like taking baths and showers and can not stand being around people who do not.
And the number one reason is
01. Women never let guys know how smart they are, this would put them at a disadvantage when arguing.
My mother raise seven kids and has watched 13 grandkids grow up. Her observation is this (and it hold true for IT) When two brothers get in a fight they punch each other and are playing nice in half an hour. When two Sisters get into a fight they never really have it out and just pick at each other for days! And as with anything there will be exceptions but on the macro I have watched my nieces and nephews and it is, by and large, true. I have worked in environments that are 90% female and some that are 90% male and the amount of back stabbing that goes on in a female environment is, in my completely unscientific experience, far greater. Would I hire a woman in IT? In a second because I am all about the person not the class but I wont tolerate for a second games, I have a deeper tolerance for two people yelling at each other during a meeting than quietly stewing so they can talk about it with other later. Political Correctness is a joke its not about thin skin its about manipulation to accomplish social ends..
I've been working overseas in the Middle East and Asia and my IT workforce have been pretty much evenly divided by gender. Perhaps non-western women view IT as an unusual opportunity to gain entre to the marketplace and work with men as peers. Why it's not appealing to western women is not clear in the article although I must say not much of anything is clear in the article.
"He's using a quantum encryption scheme! That'll take hours to break!"
Warning! Dangerous generalizations lie ahead!
Unlike men, who apparently only have a single value and motivation for choosing their career.
While that's not quite true, it's far more accurate when describing a man than a woman. Socially, men are judged and measured by their occupation and potential as a provider. If a man works a laid-back, 25 hour a week part-time job because his spouse allows him to do so, he's a lazy bum; for a woman, it's a perfectly acceptable decision as far as society is concerned (although how an individual woman feels about it is up to her).
Far and above all other standards, men want a decent salary and job security, and they're willing to put up with a lot of crap to get it. According to Department of Labor statistics, for example, 90% of on-the-job deaths are men, and men work more hours both in fullt-ime and part-time jobs than women; Men will take the dangerous, filthy, and more time-intensive jobs because of the extra pay associated with them.
Women certainly value good pay and stability, and this study isn't questioning that. Rather, it is saying that opening a book and saying, "Look ladies, we have good pay and stability" isn't the deal maker that it is for men. Socially, women can afford (more than men) to demand additional perks from a job. We're all familiar with the list: flexible hours, jobs that focus more on interpersonal communication, etc. Again, a total generalization but true when looked at as a total generalization.
In essence: if you are an HR manager, part of your job is to bring in diverse employees. The reasons for that are certainly debatable, and I agree with you that it shouldn't be as big of a deal as some make it out to be. But if you are an HR manager, and if you are attempting to recruit more women, you should probably rethink your sales pitch.
IT and nannies basically do the same job. They clean up crap left behind by irrational people. Nannies have the advantage of size over their tormenters.
direction.
What do women want in IT jobs? The same as everyone else: An opportunity to pursue whatever goals they have through the job. If, on average, they have different goals, the jobs they take will look something different.
My grandmother introduced me to computers when I was 5 (back in 1981). She programmed her physics models in Fortran and ran them on big mainframes and not quite so big computers (still huge by our standards today), and was a pioneer in her field of astrophysics. She had a lot in common with many women in IT today and felt that it was a mistake to focus on bringing more women into the field when we should be focusing on more fundamnetal goals instead.
The basic issue is: in IT as in astrophysics, you are only really good at your field if you are borderline (or more) obsessive-compulsive. You can't just work in the field-- you have to live and breathe the field most of your waking hours nearly every day. It is a lifestyle more than a career. And it is found in mathematics, physics, etc (all fields dominated by men). Indeed this may say more about balance in life (and a gender gap in that area), and an ability to avoid letting one thing overwhelm the rest than it may say about aptitude in the field per se. Think about all the jokes about Slashdotters and girlfriends (or engineers and girlfriends, for that matter) and ask how many women want to be in fields where such jokes are made as at least representing some version of the reality of those who work in them.
My suggested solution is to stop thinking about what we can do to lure women into jobs that they don't want and instead focus on architectures of participation. The goal should not be "why don't you want this job" but instead "what do *you* want to do? How do you want to participate?" THis requires a fundamental shift of a company away from top-down management into something more organic or community oriented.
Think of it this way (for the men out here): If you were a registered nurse and everyone always asked you, "Why don't more men go into nursing?" would that be helpful or would it dissuade you from promoting others going into the field? Wouldn't it be better if we focused on redefining the field such that it could be more inclusive of people with diverse goals so that more people could contribute what they could?
We are also going to have to admit at some point that gender roles are going to eventually play into peoples' career choices and that some fields are going to be dominated by people from one gender or the other. This is OK and healthy by itself and without other factors, not worth worrying about.
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