This is Women’s History Month — a time to recognize the often overlooked vision, courage and accomplishments of our nation’s women. To kick it off, did you know that a famous Hollywood actress of the 1930s and ‘40s, Hedy Lamarr, was also a pioneer for women and technology? She co-invented spread-spectrum broadcast communications technologies.
There are many wonderful examples —from Hedy Lamarr to Meg Whitman — of women leading the way in technology. Yet it is clear that there is still much to be done to get more girls and women into IT careers.
Women make up nearly half the overall workforce, but just 28 percent have core IT occupations. That includes technical occupations like software developers, network engineers and technical support specialists working in a range of industry verticals like healthcare, education, services and natural resources. According to the Department of Commerce, women with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) earn 33 percent more than women in non-STEM jobs. This alone should entice women considering a career in technology.
Reasons for the gap vary: Women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering. Women with a STEM degree are less likely than their male counterparts to work in a STEM occupation and more likely to work in education or healthcare.
Interestingly, there are significant differences in the way men and women use tablets, smartphones, GPS and even laptops. In a June 2013 CompTIA study titled, “Generational Research on Technology and its Impact on the Workplace,” males were far more likely in many cases than females to have used any of these devices in the course of their work life in the preceding year. Consider:
- Sixty-five percent of men versus 44 percent of women said they used a smartphone for work.
- 72 percent of men versus 55 percent of women said they used a laptop for work.
- Among Generation X specifically, 46 percent of men used a tablet last year, compared to just 16 percent of women.
- Also among Gen Xers, 70 percent of the men surveyed put a smartphone to use at work versus 40 percent of women.
While these statistics illustrate the gap between men and women, there are bright spots in the data. For example, once they find a home in IT, women report significantly higher job satisfaction (84 percent) than their male counterparts (74 percent). In addition, there has been a definite uptick in the number of women earning degrees in STEM-related fields.
Still, much remains to be done. We need to support innovative programs that are reaching out to young girls to engage them in STEM education. CompTIA’s foundation, Creating IT Futures, focuses on women and other underserved populations to assess, train and test them for CompTIA IT workforce certifications — and then match them to an internship or apprenticeship. CompTIA’s Advancing Women in IT community is about nurturing women as they progress in their IT careers. They also team up with national efforts like the National Center for Women in Technology.
During Women’s History Month, let’s take stock of the advances of women and rededicate ourselves to the work that lies ahead to achieve parity in the IT industry.
Elizabeth Hyman is the vice president of public advocacy for CompTIA.
