Ever wondered why there are so few women in IT? My husband who runs an e-business has 35 male employees. Oh, I think he has one female staff now, she was hired in the last couple of months. In the 10 years of his business running he’s had 3 female employees. The last time he interviewed a female programmer, the office went silent when she entered. She didn’t take the job!

Me? I’ve been in IT for the last 22 years, and yeah, always the minority. Last place I worked, there were 9 guys …and then there was poor me.

At Uni, back 25 years ago, you could count with one hand the number of girls in the Computer Courses.

You’d think that quarter of a century later, things would have changed somewhat. But according to a recent article in Tech Savvy :

Currently:

• Girls represent 17 percent of the Computer Science “AP” test takers, and less than one in 10 of the higher level Computer Science “AB” test takers.
• Women are roughly 20 percent of IT professionals.
• Women receive less than 28 percent of the computer science bachelor’s degrees, down from a high of 37 percent in 1984. Computer science is the only field in which women’s participation has actually decreased over time.
• Women make up just 9 percent of the recipients of engineering-related bachelor’s degrees.

Among the report’s major conclusions:

• Computer technology—Girls find programming classes tedious and dull, computer games too boring, redundant, and violent, and computer career options uninspiring.

• Electronic games—Girls have clear and strong ideas about what kinds of games they would design: games that feature simulation, strategy, and interaction. These games, in fact, would appeal to a broad range of learners?boys and girls alike.

• Computer fluency—Gender equity cannot be measured by how many girls send e-mail, use the Internet, or make PowerPoint presentations. Rather, gender equity means using technology proactively, being able to interpret the information that technology makes available, understanding design concepts, and being a lifelong learner of technology. These abilities apply across the whole range of subjects and careers, not just computer science.

• Teacher education—The “drive by” approach to teacher training focuses on the technical properties of hardware; it does not emphasize educational applications or innovative uses of computing for each subject area.

• The high-tech workplace—When women, who make up half the workforce, account for only 20 percent of those with information technology credentials, it is a clear sign that we have to make computers and technology relevant across the job market to nontraditional users.

And how about that!!

Maybe we need to start them even younger these days.

I don’t know if its because I’m girlie or if its because I’m old, (this has nothing to do with me being a girlie IT here), or perhaps all of the above, but it takes ages to convince me of anything good about some fancy new internet gizmo. A good example is YouTube. While everyone else around me has been you-tubing(ain’t it amazing that its a household word) away for ages now, I’d only just caught on.

But hey, I’m truly addicted now. Check out my current favourite.

Ever wondered who’s where?

I tracked down an old friend yesterday, thanks to Google. Technology once again, the brilliance of it, even for just a girly like me – even an IT one.

I must admit it wasn’t all that hard to do, to Google someone’s name. Its only hard cos it took 23 years to find this one person!!

How many of you out there have done just that? Google a name, just to read up about an old school mate, an ex flame, an old neighbour, someone who had dropped off the horizon.

And what a thrill it is to see the name pop up as a topic. Quick, click on it. Yes, Its HIM!!!

On ya Amai!!