Women are bailing out of IT

Post by petercooper » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 8:56 AM UTC

minus1 wrote: post #30

petercooper wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a two year old daughter. She means everything to me. I hope that if she were interested in pursuing a career in computer science there would be nothing to dissuade her. Unfortunately, given the lack of women in the field, the perception is that this is primarily a career for men. I have a one year old daughter, but I think my bias is one of a gritty commoner brought up surrounded by gritty, strong London women…

Why do you think it is that most of the women in the field are "ass kickers"?

They're just the sort of people I fraternize with - I don't mix with weak people.

I dare say there are plenty of weak people in the industry having problems - it just looks like gender discrimination because men are less likely to complain about or leave the industry over such harassment due to pride and lack of options.

Merely trying to make the industry more appealing to women (rather than "people" generally) is like trying to make Detroit more appealing to the rich. Until harassment and BS is stamped out for the people already in the industry, the people who have a choice whether to enter the industry or not aren't going to be easily persuaded. The garden should be weeded before we plant more seeds.

Post by hkarthik » Tue, Jun 29, 2010, 5:04 AM UTC

prodigal_erik wrote: post #8

skybrian wrote: post #5

The report is apparently not online, though you can give them your email address here: http://www.ncwit.org/resources.thefacts.html [Edit: actually it is, just click "no thanks"] There's another article here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/06/ncwit-report-... "The NCWIT report contends that 56% of women in technology companies leave their organizations at the mid-level point (10-20 years) in their career…

I read that as 10-20 years since the beginning of their career (i.e., age 30-40 if it's their first career). Makes me wonder whether women are more likely to switch careers (though they say men trend to less risk-aversion), or more likely to take parental leave and not return. I agree that many years at a single tech company would be very surprising, even outside the valley.

I'm sure that taking a time off to raise small children until they are school age plays a big part in these stats. From birth to kindergarten that's about 5 years of being a stay at home parent.

If you're a developer, think of what difference 5 years makes. 5 years ago Rails was just a blip on the radar of web frameworks. 5 years ago, JQuery had not been released. 5 years ago, the Motorola Razr was a high end mobile phone.

So much can change in 5 years that your skills could be completely irrelevant. I couldn't blame anyone (man or woman) from switching careers completely after a multi-year hiatus. IT moves quick and the barrier to re-entry can be very high.

Re: Women are bailing out of IT

Re: Women are bailing out of IT