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Women shun 'nerdy' hi-tech jobs
BBC News ^
| 27 November 2001
Posted on 11/27/2001 1:16:00 PM PST by CounterCounterCulture
Tuesday, 27 November, 2001, 14:44 GMT
Women shun 'nerdy' hi-tech jobs
Few women see hi-tech as a potential career
The nerdy image of the internet industry and a lack of female role models is deterring women from pursuing a career in hi-tech, says a report.
This could have widespread repercussions for all businesses as Europe is facing a shortage of skilled networking engineers.
With the number of job vacancies set to exceed 500,000 by 2004, analyst firm IDC says one way of solving the problem would be to encourage more women to enter the profession.
"While the whole information technology industry suffers from low female participation rates, it was surprising just how few women see networking as a suitable profession," said report co-author Marianne Kolding.
Network engineers are crucial to the smooth running of many businesses, as they are responsible for installing, maintaining and operating this technology.
Encouraging women
The research, carried out by IDC for Cisco Systems, found that the number of women in the computer networking industry in Western Europe was set to double by 2004, with 94,000 women working as internet networking engineers.
But even with this increase, women would still only represent just over 7% of the workforce.
"The more role models there are, the more it will encourage other women to choose internet networking as a career"
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Marianne Kolding, report co-author
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The study says that the industry and government must work together to encourage women to consider networking as a career, to overcome a skills shortage in the future. "Our research shows that the focus for attracting more women to networking should not only be at the education level but also the retention of women already in the profession," said Ms Kolding.
"The more role models there are, the more it will encourage other women to choose internet networking as a career."
Image problem
"It's a shame networking still suffers from an image problem and there is still a perception that networking is 'too technical' for women"
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Mike Couzens, Cisco
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One of the reasons for the lack of women is a perception that women are less able to undertake technical tasks than men. "It's a shame networking still suffers from an image problem and there is still a perception that networking is 'too technical' for women," said Cisco's Mike Couzens.
France is forecast to have the highest percentage of women in the networking industry, followed by Spain, Finland, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Norway.
In October, the UK Government said it would be introducing a set of measures next year to try to attract more women to pursue careers in information technology.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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Mucked up the intro pic...Here'tiz...
To: CounterCounterCulture
Let me be the first to say we definitely need more women in the industry.
3
posted on
11/27/2001 1:18:20 PM PST
by
SoDak
To: sirgawain; Victoria Delsoul; lovecraft; dead; unix
ping...
To: SoDak
Let me be the first to say we definitely need more women in the industry.
Sounds like the screams of thousands of lonely male engineers. Wouldn't blame ya.
To: SoDak
Let me be the first to say this sort of behavior partially explains the apparent discrepancy in pay between men and women.
6
posted on
11/27/2001 1:21:34 PM PST
by
Tymesup
To: SoDak
Let me be the first to say we definitely need more women in the industry Agreed.
7
posted on
11/27/2001 1:21:36 PM PST
by
znix
To: Tymesup
Let me be the first to say this sort of behavior partially explains the apparent discrepancy in pay between men and women.
ABSOLUTELY. Remember this next time some FemiNazi tries to stir things up with the so-called gender pay gap.
To: CounterCounterCulture
Women shun civil engineering jobs
Women shun turbo-diesel repair jobs.
Women shun high value interior trim carpentry jobs.
What does this word "shun" mean? Or is it just a politcal correct way of saying "women won't( or can not)do bla, bla, bla work."
9
posted on
11/27/2001 1:24:12 PM PST
by
Leisler
To: CounterCounterCulture
Perhaps that's the main reason there aren't more women in networking? It's a thought. I think we scared away the last woman in our department. One of the guys was so nervous he dumped a cup of coffee through the cooling grates on a $90,000 risc server when she asked if he could give her a hand. Soon after that she left and went back to school.
10
posted on
11/27/2001 1:25:01 PM PST
by
SoDak
To: CounterCounterCulture
I am going to get flamed for this...
I will explain the real reason why...
Computer science, math, engineering, history, English, science, and business classes are hard. With the possible exception of English, there are no women in these fields.
However, you can always find tons of women in majors like Psychology, Social Sciences, and Education, in which you can "feel" your way to a degree. With all the "victimology" of women going on campuses, no wonder they migrate to these fields.
Camille Paglia says the same thing. The fact is that more women graduate college than men by far, but they are in the wrong fields.
Comment #12 Removed by Moderator
To: CounterCounterCulture
Sounds like the screams of thousands of lonely male engineers. Wouldn't blame ya. You talking about me?
13
posted on
11/27/2001 1:26:56 PM PST
by
Cool Guy
To: SoDak
Was it Dilbert or Wally? ;-)
To: CounterCounterCulture
Why "encourage" any adult to enter a field they prefer not to enter just to make equality numbers look good?
15
posted on
11/27/2001 1:27:29 PM PST
by
goodieD
To: znix
I volunteer to offer training to any women interested.
To: Cool Guy; Yossarian
PING
To: Cool Guy
I knew you'd show up early for this thread. ;-)
To: SoDak
I'm sick of my job and technology.....I'd rather stay home and cook/clean/entertain/garden:0)
19
posted on
11/27/2001 1:29:21 PM PST
by
geege
To: CounterCounterCulture
Nobody is keeping the women out. The path is open. Don't blame men if women don't want to do the kind of work that the marketplace demands.
20
posted on
11/27/2001 1:30:05 PM PST
by
JoeSchem
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