Women and technology.....boon or bane??

opinion on women in IT field

As a child, the little picture cards you played with had a woman as a nurse, a woman as a teacher and a man as a doctor, a man an engineer. You have those images and they automatically link or focus doctors and engineers as male-dominated occupations. So as a child growing up you already combine those two things - that they are male industries and nursing and teaching is a women's field. Things are changing but you are still looking at it, the books you get when have a woman as a nurse, a woman is a teacher, you don't see cartoons or pictures of a male nurse, or a male teacher, or a female engineer.

Recently, the topic of the gender gap in graduate work has been featured in the news. Studies show that computers and technology are more targeted at men. Many men end up buying and becoming more and more accustomed to this technology leaving women behind, as a result of which it creates a huge gender gap in the technology-related fields we see today. Finding a female engineer in college is like finding a needle in a haystack. I am well aware of the absence of women in the STEM field, but it did not discourage me because I also see evidence of daily experience that being a woman has nothing to do with success.

If girls are told they are capable enough instead of being told they should be beautiful, play with dolls and leave “hard jobs” for men, if they are not fed up with typical gender stereotypes, I suspect that the current situation might be better. There would be too many would-be women in technology. If, like me, they had grown up completely ignorant of the misconceptions that “computers were made for boys” and then, like me, being a woman would not have matched their career choices.  Gender discrimination, although illegal, still exists in the labour market. Interviewees asked questions about marital and parental status in three-quarters of female applicants. Although they may not be asked directly about their family status, an astonishing 40 percent of all women feel they have to be careful about the details of their families during job interviews.

Women in male-dominated fields such as IT often lack self-confidence and suffer from feelings of inadequacy. In a workplace where most of the employees are male, women often feel inadequate. A strong figure of about 60 percent of women working in technology reports sexual abuse. While such problems can exist in areas with a high level of gender equality, the problem seems to be worse in IT. In addition, the lack of a college degree in engineering or computer science can also lead to a working environment in which women feel unqualified. Some women may also find it difficult to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in technology. However, women can do IT jobs just as men do, as long as they make an effort to develop and maintain their skills in the required field.

Female IT professionals often report that they feel they do not have the full support of their colleagues. They feel that they lack support at home in situations where family members and friends accept cultural bias towards working women. Attitudes toward the role of women in the home often prevent female IT professionals from achieving health and work balance. Also, new mothers often cut short their paid maternity leave because they feel that they will lose their job or not be promoted because of their absence.

Addressing inequality and discrimination in the workplace are difficult, but managing it without the support of the chosen profession makes things even more difficult. Working to improve the quality of family communication can go a long way in ensuring that all family members of IT staff members understand that their work in the IT industry is important to them. When women (or any other employee) feel like outsiders in the workplace because of their distinctive traits or differences (e.g., gender, race/nationality, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation), they feel excluded. Creating an inclusive workplace means creating a culture that is fully inclusive and supportive of all employees.