Why the lack of females in technical roles

Stolly · 21 Dec 2017 at 07:13

IT roles can be amazing and take people around the world. I’ve worked up to a fairly senior position and have a team of 20. All male. In 6 years I’ve interviewed dozens of people, all male. I’d hire female candidates if they’d actually exist.

It’s perplexing.

memyselfandi · 21 Dec 2017 at 07:48

I suspect a lot of it was the way that technical roles gad a stigma of being a bit "nerdy" and frankly girls didn't want to go into it, partly because they were not interested and partly because they didn't want to work with the guys that were.

But now, whilst I would say that I see more men than women I do see a significant number of women both in technical and technical management roles (hell, the person who actually taught me Unix 20 years ago was a woman and very, very, good at her job). This is probably helped by technical roles being seen as more mainstream nowadays. The small team I'm in is 25% female and all team members are there on technical ability ... anyone leaves and we decide who is coming in purely on knowledge and ability to do their job.

I would say that with the women I have worked with over the years they do tend to be more likely to move from technical into other non-technical roles over time then the guys ... e.g. to project or service management.

malachi · 21 Dec 2017 at 09:37

Quite a few females in my support roles from 1st to 3rd line.

Had an BT engineer turn upto our Bristol site a few months ago. Happened to be very lovely young lady

ttaskmaster · 21 Dec 2017 at 10:25

Differences in how minds work, along with the continuing geeky male dominance thing, probably.
Things like 'Women In STEM' probably don't help, as the postitive discrimination forces them into the roles rather than just making the roles available if women want them.
We have women in some technical fields, including IT, but others seem either too closed or too boring...

Rroff · 21 Dec 2017 at 10:27

I see some. When I was studying IT and when I've had anything to do with course there has always been a few but a small number like 1:15 ratio.

I had a programming lecturer once who was a women and one of the best - she later got poached by IBM and know/know of around half a dozen women who are studying software development and similar fields.

something daft already!! · 21 Dec 2017 at 10:28

Out of a team of 14 techs, two of mine are female, one is transgender and identifies as female. My partner has no interest in tech, only in bath stuffs and smelly things/ pretty things. Maybe most women simply do not have an interest?

Rroff · 21 Dec 2017 at 10:31

something daft already!! said:
Out of a team of 14 techs, two of mine are female, one is transgender and identifies as female. My partner has no interest in tech, only in bath stuffs and smelly things/ pretty things. Maybe most women simply do not have an interest?

I think a lot of women have just never had a reason to have an interest as well - my mum has relatively recently got into using computers, etc. and is pretty much a natural and I suspect would easily pick up programming but she never really had any exposure to it or a reason.

Delvis · 21 Dec 2017 at 10:48

We have three here, depends on the company and the opportunity they've given...Particularly things like apprenticeships.

dacads · 21 Dec 2017 at 22:33

We have a few across different departments

But yeah I think most just don't have an interest or reason to. They are naturally most artistic and creative which is why more will be designers etc.

Regardless though any position should be promoted and open to all.

danza · 22 Dec 2017 at 20:13

Probably 10% of the applicants I've had for an opening on my team for the role of design engineer have been female. At one point I had 2 female team members out of 6. They've both left now, though, and it's all men.

There aren't many out there that seem as interested in technical roles as blokes are. Out of probably 50 engineering staff (including project engineers, production engineers, design engineers, physicists, QA and management) we have 1 female.

Fusion · 23 Dec 2017 at 08:43

Possibly reputation more than anything. The last engineering firm I worked at bucked the trend- there were lots of women, especially graduates, apprentices, interns etc. The firm promoted "Women in Engineering" type events, but I asked a few of the women about these and they had somewhat negative views on specific promotion of females in certain sectors, perhaps because it draws attention to the fact that there's an issue and in some ways compounds it- bit of a paradox.

Perhaps the composition will change with time.

ghutchison14078 · 23 Dec 2017 at 10:53

Really should be more, most women I've met are far more patient than men; patience can be a great virtue working in a technical role.

I am a field service technician for a major Japanese office equipment/ imaging company and we have approx 330 field techs in the UK...1 female and she is located in N. Ireland and by all accounts she's bloody good.

Hotwired · 23 Dec 2017 at 11:08

Fusion said:
Possibly reputation more than anything. The last engineering firm I worked at bucked the trend- there were lots of women, especially graduates, apprentices, interns etc. The firm promoted "Women in Engineering" type events, but I asked a few of the women about these and they had somewhat negative views on specific promotion of females in certain sectors, perhaps because it draws attention to the fact that there's an issue and in some ways compounds it- bit of a paradox.

Perhaps the composition will change with time.

Discriminating against men for a position means the woman isn't getting there on merit alone. It is also be unlikely that it is applied to every available job.

So yes, there is potential for resentment at seeing another get promoted through special treatment.

I recall nothing positive being said by female staff round here when they became aware a woman was getting fast tracked up to make up the numbers.

Sex doesn't even have to come into it, everyone is out for themselves.

Moley · 23 Dec 2017 at 11:13

It's quite simple really - the vast majority of women aren't interested in and don't want to do technical jobs. There are of course exceptions and they often turn out to be very talented engineers, but this is not the norm.

mid_gen · 23 Dec 2017 at 12:17

Western culture tells women that IT is a man's industry....it's not an appealing industry to work in as a woman, so less of them join.

When I was leading development teams out in Asia, it was so refreshing to have close to a 50:50 gender balance. So much more productive, cuts out all the alpha male BS you get with all male teams.

Was weird moving back to Europe and being back in the Western sausage fest.

HarryJ · 23 Dec 2017 at 15:05

The wage gap too plays a part. Why bother to train and learn to be technical as someone else yet receive less pay?

Also as demonstrated by that google leak some time ago, some men have outdated views, belittling women in technical roles. An environment hostile to the inclusion and advancement of women plays a part, suppressing their talents.

Progress is being made but there is still a way to go for equal representation.

Nutty_Death · 25 Dec 2017 at 09:21

HarryJ said:
The wage gap too plays a part. Why bother to train and learn to be technical as someone else yet receive less pay?

Also as demonstrated by that google leak some time ago, some men have outdated views, belittling women in technical roles. An environment hostile to the inclusion and advancement of women plays a part, suppressing their talents.

Progress is being made but there is still a way to go for equal representation.

You clearly didn't read 'the Google leak' memo and have misrepresented what was actually written. The memo was supporting getting more women into tech and was analysing the reasons for the imbalance, using researched evidence to support the statements made. It wasn't an outdated males view on why women shouldn't be in tech.
https://medium.com/@Cernovich/full-...nsored-memo-with-charts-and-cites-339f3d2d05f

Also read up on what the wage gap actually is, as it isn't females with similar years of experience, doing the same role getting paid less.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/the-gender-pay-gap-is-largely-a-myth/

dowie · 25 Dec 2017 at 11:59

HarryJ said:
The wage gap too plays a part. Why bother to train and learn to be technical as someone else yet receive less pay?

depending on the figures used you've got this the wrong way around, part of the reason for some quoted wage gaps is because there are fewer women in STEM subjects and that has a knock on effect re: fewer women in high paying technical careers

it is generally advantageous for a woman to apply herself to technical careers these days, there is hiring bias in their favour at plenty of large companies

StevieP · 25 Dec 2017 at 14:19

Stolly said:
I’d hire female candidates if they’d actually exist.

Not if a man was more qualified and suitable I hope!

I don't understand why diversity is seemingly so important these days - why can't the right person for the job just be the best person for the job!?!?

Nutty_Death · 25 Dec 2017 at 15:49

StevieP said:
Not if a man was more qualified and suitable I hope!

I don't understand why diversity is seemingly so important these days - why can't the right person for the job just be the best person for the job!?!?

Striving for equality by marginalising a certain group... But I would say that as a white privileged male...