Last week saw the publication of the Women in IT scorecard, from the British Computer Society (BCS) and e-skills. This scorecard covers the participation in IT of women from schools to the workforce. With so many initiatives to increase participation in the IT sector in general, and with more and more being targeted at women and girls, has there been any change in numbers?
Firstly – good news! The number of women working as IT specialists in the UK has grown significantly. However, the greater growth in the numbers of male IT specialists means that the proportion of women has declined from 17% in 2003 to 16% in 2013. If we break this down into just IT specialists working specifically in the IT sector, the proportion of women is only 11%. Although there are still more men working as Directors or Managers, the gender gap is much smaller here. Women are, however, much more likely than men to hold technician grade jobs (e.g. operations/user support) with 34% of women and 20% of men, than to hold ‘professional’ (usually development) roles (46% of women in IT, 57% of men).
Across the EU15 nations, the representation varies. The proportions of women in the IT sector start at the top with Spain on 31%, down to the EU15 average at 25%, with Belgium at the bottom with only 17%. The UK comes in at 22%, below average, only ahead of the Netherlands, Denmark, and as previously mentioned, Belgium. Comparing this to the proportions of female IT specialists, the picture is a little different. 1/4 of Greek and Irish IT specialists are female; the average this time is 17%. Again we come in slightly below average at 16%, but this time ahead of such countries as Belgium and the Netherlands (again), Germany, Portugal, Austria and Luxembourg.
Let’s have a look back to the situation in education, starting with higher education. It’s widely known that female participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) lags behind the average for all courses (34% of STEM applicants are female, vs. 57% for all subjects). The only STEM subject on a par with the average is Biology. In Mathematics and Physics, proportions of female applicants are similar to the STEM average. However, the situation becomes somewhat bleaker when you see that young women make up significantly fewer of the applications to Engineering (11%), Computer Science (12%) and other technologies (11%). Clearly, something is putting them off before they apply for these courses. Moving on to the end of their studies, across all subjects 59% of qualifiers are female while only 18% of Computer Science and IT-related qualifiers are; since 2008 the gender gap in Computer Science qualifiers has widened. Even IT-related Postgraduate degrees, with the highest proportion of female qualifiers, only reached 22%, while those on first degrees make up 16%.
Looking earlier still, back to A levels and GCSEs, we find that in 2013 young women made up only 6.5% of those sitting the Computing A level, although significantly more young women studied ICT (38% of entrants). In broad terms, these two qualifications are related to ‘IT professionals’ and ‘IT users’ respectively. Looking now at all the STEM subjects, we find that the proportion of female students is 42% – noticeably higher than for degrees. Even Physics, (which was in the news lately), lagging behind at 21%, is much higher than the 6.5% taking Computing. Some of this, I feel, can be attributed to the lack of sixth form colleges which teach Computing; almost all of the other STEM subjects are much more widely taught. As far as IT-related GCSEs are concerned, while there was an increase of 25% in female entries from 2012 to 2013, this is still much lower than it was in 2005.
Could it be the case, then, that young women don’t feel they’re good enough at these subjects to study them? If so, they are most likely mistaken; where they do choose to study IT-related courses, they outshine their male counterparts. In GCSEs, more than 3/4 of female entrants received an A*-C grade in 2013, compared to just under 70% of males. At the top end of the scale, the gap is even larger; 31% of females received an A* or an A, while 23% of males did. At A level, 16% of female entrants were awarded an A* or an A, compared to 10% of their male peers. The problem, then, is unlikely to be ability.
Certainly part of the problem is the apparent lack of role models for young women in this industry. Fortunately more and more events are being run to show them that there are women doing these jobs, and that they’re not alone; a couple of years ago I myself attended an IT’s not just for the boys event. I had never seen so many female Computer Science students in one place before, and it really helped my confidence. Even just knowing it’s not just you makes a difference.
Add to this lack of role models the stereotypical image of programmers as pale, bespectacled beings with questionable personal hygiene and a lack of social skills who scoff endless pizzas and drink far too much Pepsi Max and Mountain Dew, and it’s no wonder young women are put off. Fortunately, this is not the norm! Unfortunately, stereotypes tend to stick. However, by introducing more and more children at a younger age to some of the concepts involved, perhaps we can make them realise that it’s most certainly not a prerequisite to be like that.
The BCS/e-skills report can be found here.
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