Why Are There So Few Women in IT? (Erica's opinion)

One of the reasons I started the thread (edit: read my previous blog post first) was to expose some of the myths that float around in the IT world and are perpetuated by men who (unfortunately) have no real idea why there aren’t any women in their field, and make guesses that aren’t based on any reality. I have heard countless times things like “Women just aren’t good at math”, “Women aren’t risk-takers”, “Women shy away from leadership and men don’t”, etc. It’s shocking how little some people in our field know about women’s real motivations and why they aren’t in IT.

Here’s what I can tell you. I know a pretty diverse group of women, some of whom are quite brilliant, but very few of whom have actually stuck it out in IT. Why? As best I can tell, each of them have had so many bad experiences with the men in IT that they’ve given up on it. Every woman I know who has computers or math as even a passing interest has stories of male teachers, male counterparts, or male bosses tell them some form of “Women can’t cut it in this industry.” The IT industry tends to attract men who prefer computers to socialization. This is where I believe that differences between men and women come in. Now, you can argue whether these differences are built-in or societal (I happen to believe it’s 90%+ societal). Here’s what I’ve seen:

1) I really think the key is the different way males and females in our society are motivated. Female role models motivate by building everyone up and encouraging them to work as a team. Male role models motivate by singling out the “weakest link” and (often) putting that person on display in front of the others as an example of what not to do. When a man in our society is told he isn’t good enough, he considers this a challenge to his ego and strives to do better. Women tend to internalize this and get frustrated about it; they avoid the conflict and either do something else or work with other people who are going to be more supportive. Many males, especially in the tech industry, use the words “You aren’t good enough” as a motivator without understanding that it doesn’t motivate most women. This goes along with the fact that women in our society have much lower self-confidence than men; did you know that 1 in 5 women are on anti-depressants?

2) Women tend to want to work with other people. I have heard a lot of women say “I don’t want to work in the computer industry because it involves sitting in front of a computer all day, and I’d rather be out there with people.” I have also heard this same statement from numerous men, but I think this is a larger influencing decision on women.

While males can generally work with a female leader (though they may criticize her for not being assertive or authoritative in the way they consider to be a leader), women will not work well with a traditionally dominant male leader, and if a woman happens to be singled out, she will generally try to “blend in” in her ideal of having everyone work as a solid, cohesive team.

I have read numerous books that say similar things, including one interesting study about women who win awards. Men who win awards will claim it for themselves (single person mentality) and thank everyone else as an afterthought, while women will make sure to carefully thank everyone on their team and often say things like “I couldn’t have done this without them!”

What can we do to change this? 1) Educate male teachers and role models on how women are motivated and teach them how motivating as a team can benefit all of their students/workers; and 2) Encourage more female role models in the IT industry. I’d like to expand on these two things in the future once I talk to more women and get specific ideas.

If any of you have comments on why you think there are so few women in IT, now is the time to make them. 🙂