Women in Financial IT - Career Advancement

IT has always been widely perceived as a traditionally male dominated industry – when there’s a problem you ‘call the IT guys’ for help. Despite around half of the UK workforce being female, women make up less than 20% of Britain’s technical workforce. Fewer young women choosing careers in IT and more women leaving the sector and not returning have combined to create a distinct lack of female IT professionals in the financial arena.

Additionally, it seems that many women also avoid the sector because of its perceived image as boring or geeky. CRAC, the career development organisation, found in its 2008 study of almost 2,000 undergraduates that over 60% of non-computing students cited boring work as the main reason they would not join the sector. Similarly, in recent research by womenintechnology.co.uk, in association with the British Computer Society, almost 80% of respondents agreed that women were dissuaded from working in IT as technology is perceived as dull. One woman said: “I think a lot of women are put off because it is geeky and because women in IT are perceived as a bit weird or unfeminine. A (male) colleague once said to me of a female colleague: ‘She’s quite pretty for an engineer’. I guess the rest of us were considered ugly!” This is also a reason why many young girls avoid taking scientific subjects at school, which results in fewer women taking technological routes at university and beyond. And of those who do pursue these academic routes, many do not move into technical roles when they graduate and opt for positions in areas such as marketing instead.

Of course, there are women who do forge very successful IT careers, but there are also a high number of women who then leave the sector, largely due to the pressure of family commitments, and do not return. According to a 2005 report by the University of Cambridge, around 50,000 women left the industry between 1999 and 2003. With the fast moving pace of both technology and finance and the long hours often involved, many women lose their confidence to return to this sector and decide to move into other sectors offering a more attractive work/life balance. Others find themselves hit by the ‘motherhood penalty’, stripped of opportunities because of pregnancy or childcare responsibilities. One participant in womenintechnology’s research said: “After two very short maternity leaves, I was warned by my boss that if I had another baby I would lose my job.” Another commented: “I’ve never seen any man have a career-stopping problem because he happened to work on a legacy project (i.e. out of touch with the newest, hottest tech) for more than six months, but for women it seems that six months off to have a baby is too long for some employers. Double standards rule again.” Over half of the respondents in our research felt that being a woman makes it harder to succeed in IT and also that they earn less than male colleagues in similar roles, showing that many still confront a glass ceiling.

However, some may question why this matters. Why is it so important to have more women working in technology anyway? Some research suggests that having more women in influential positions not only benefits an organisation in terms of diversity, but also has financial advantages. US research has shown that Fortune 500 companies with the highest proportion of female directors are more profitable and efficient than those with the lowest. And according to research by McKinsey, the strategy consultancy, European organisations with the highest proportion of women in influential leadership roles showed better than average financial performance.

For technology specifically, the white male professionals from the baby boom generation are beginning to retire and this, combined with the decline in new blood entering the sector, is creating a real fear that by 2010 IT will be experiencing a substantial lack of talent. Put simply, women represent a large and often untapped talent pool that the technology sector should be looking to recruit from if it is to remain competitive. Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself said that it’s a crucial industry to the British economy – but it won’t remain so without a strong workforce.

Women add to the team dynamic. A diverse team can bring a wider range of perspectives to the table and, therefore, more ideas to drive towards success. Women are also influential consumers in today’s economy, so having their input to reflect the needs and views of this powerful group is crucial.

Recruiting Women

Many organisations throughout the UK are beginning to realise that it’s in their best interests to boost female presence in their IT teams and so have stepped up efforts to attract and retain female technologists accordingly. For example, IT consultancy ThoughtWorks ran a programme to help women returners. They provided free technical training to help ease them back into the industry and the company even offered some participants jobs at the end of the programme. They said: “We didn’t want to accept that there are not enough women in IT – we wanted to do something about it. We also recognised that women who work as developers and then take a career break have tremendous value and ability that we wanted to help bring back into IT. The industry moves so quickly that just one year out can mean many new technologies. Coming back to work after a break can also be a daunting prospect.” IT services firm Connect established an internal group named ‘Google Girls’ in an attempt to both attract and retain more female staff. The group organises events for the women in the company, as well as mentoring, to solidify this minority group.

womenintechnology organises networking events and training sessions that provide advice on how to succeed as a female in an IT career. Previous events have included ‘working smarter, not harder’, ‘political savvy’ and ‘positive career management’ and it is this support and encouragement that can make a real difference to the number of women in IT. Events such as this can help women boost their career advancement. Networking presents opportunities to meet new people who may have useful insights or contacts and training events can build confidence and develop new skills, for example leadership and negotiation. This combination can really give women the tools they need to push their career to the next level.

Retaining female technologists is, of course, something that needs to be a big focus in financial IT but it’s also key to look at how more women can be attracted into the sector in the first place. Those girls that don’t want to study scientific or technical subjects at school will not have the desire or knowledge to enter into an IT career later on in life. From a young age, girls must learn that there is a wide range of exciting roles available in the technology industry and careers advice must educate people about the opportunities out there. A respondent in womenintechnology’s research gave her thoughts on the issue: “ICT [information and communication technology] in schools is quite dire and many girls see it as a boring career choice. They don’t understand the potential for multiple careers within the IT space (technical, management, marketing, sales, design, etc)”

This is not to say that women deserve special treatment. All of the events that womenintechnology hosts are open to both men and women, and companies should offer this type of support to all their staff and also think about how they can support all of their valuable employees who have family responsibilities. This support must not just come from HR or from one individual manager, but must be driven throughout the organisation to ensure staff at every level are on board. Many women have said that they often find female managers without a family are worse than men with regards to dealing with the needs of working mothers. Companies that make an effort to keep up communication, that offer training and support and present new opportunities and challenges will be the ones which ultimately have more female technologists and reap the benefits resulting from this.

Conclusion

There are many great IT opportunities in the financial sector for women, but it’s vital that these are promoted further and that the image of the IT ‘guys’ changes. In the meantime, it’s important that female technologists support each other and use all the resources at their disposal to break the stereotype and advance their careers as far as possible. Having more successful women in top IT positions will make female talent more visible and hopefully then make technology careers more attractive and accessible for women.