Communications of the ACM
Women Working to Expand in Tech Industry
From coders to venture capitalists, women remain a small minority in most tech-related businesses. In fact, of the 20 leading occupations of employed women surveyed by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2009, none of them included technical jobs. At the same time, only 3% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were women. In order to combat this trend, new groups have formed to help women find mentors and build their confidence in the technology field. At the recent SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, for example, there were many women-only events and panels that attempted to address the issue of women in the tech industry.
Nonprofit organizations are doing their part to encourage more women to enter the technology field. For example, Austin-based Girl Start provides science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programming for girls outside of the classroom. These organizations are making sure that more girls feel that they have access to STEM jobs. They also point out that having more women in the field is important for long-term U.S. innovation.
Women at SXSW also talked about the desire to be respected in the IT workplace, not just liked. At a certain point in professional life, being nice does not get women to the level of respect or responsibility that they want. Leadership coaches point out that women have to be more authoritative and more assertive and be OK with not being liked by everyone. As conferences like SXSW bring together thought leaders from all over the world, women everywhere hope that these discussions can help close the gender gap in tech-related fields.
From TechCareers
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