Seeking Better Integration With Women And IT

Yesterday’s Financial Times ‘Digital Business’ section turned over a rock few want to uncover, but should. The issues of inequality and prejudice. It uncovered some background grumblings about a disconnect in the IT world, about women and their diminishing or non-existent interest in the computer sciences, program and web development, and many other things bits- and bytes-related.

It’s pretty much a given that the average male geek will come to realize that the pool on the other side of the spectrum is rather small in their field of expertise. There is a great difference between lounging in the YouTube pool or decking out one’s Myspace page with things you find appealing or interesting. Millions of sisters, nieces, mothers and aunts have been doing so over the past few years in droves. Literally. They’re totally into the newest crop of Web 2.0, sometimes more so than their counterparts (us guys). But how many women are pursuing careers in IT or building up the next social networks?

There’s no doubt that the amount of women entering fields pertaining computer technologies is small, however. Put the number into pie chart form and they’ve got a market share similar to what Apple has got alongside Microsoft.

I don’t highlight this disconnect to tell women programmers or those aspiring for such positions to give up. In fact, the opposite needs to happen. It’s kind of interesting to watch women eclipse men in higher education today, yet at the same time they’re leaving the coming generations of IT professionals scarily devoid of balance.

Some are trying to settle the store. There are girls-only programs cropping up in Europe, Asia, and in some parts of the US, but those initiatives will do more to separate the sexes than to form some sort of beneficial cohesion to the industry and its worker complex.

I would say the answer is to make computers less of a geek fetish that produces social networks and other “cool” things on the side, but put the things that appeal to the youth currently based on the Web front and center. Stop-motion animation had to be done with expensive equipment, back in the day. Now you can do those things with as little as a PC and a web cam. Rather than forcing MS Office tutorials into kids’ curriculums, allow them a class or two that gives them free reign to experiment with Adobe CS. Sure, they’ll need to learn the ropes, and that in and of itself takes quite a long while, but they have to start somewhere. It won’t cost any more than it does already to employ instructors who understand the way our new generations like to work, the way the software and hardware works, and how to combine the two to get them to use their minds and fingers effectively, tossing out the need to bore them with textbook lesson plans.

There are girls the world over who enjoy racing Hondas in Need for Speed with other girls – and guys too – but where their number is woefully low is at the station at which those fun products are molded and framed. The hardware industry, software developers, and educators have to do away with stigmatization of females in their field, and women avoiding the IT world should cease to impress on young girls the thought that the computerized world isn’t just one large fraternity with no chance of every “belonging” there.

The door to IT should remain wide open to whoever wants to enter. Once we do stop the segmentation, we’ll surely be surprised by the wealth of fresh new ideas that women will bring to the proverbial table. Maybe then us guys won’t have to hide our fascination for Ruby on Rails from dates, girlfriends, or wives. Perhaps we’ll be sharing bottles of wine or pints of beer (if that’s your thing) with a significant other during some evening rounds of Mario Kart sooner than expected too. Does that sound great or what?