are all the women deserting IT?

[paddingtonbear1]

One of my managers just showed me one of her computing newsletters, which said many women had deserted IT by the time they were 40 due to long hours and lack of flexible working. I've been in IT for years and have definitely noticed the number of women declining. The last 2 courses I went on, I was the only woman! I think my firm are unusual in that they do offer flexible working - which is mainly why I'm still here. I was offered another job last year but the company wouldn't even entertain flexi time, so I turned it down. They were a very large firm as well! Anyone else out there in IT? Have you found the same? Just interested!

my dh is in IT (software development). lots of women in his firm, flexible working too.

Is it really a decline trend? I mean have there ever been many women in IT? My job is sort of ITish. But I come from mechanical engineering and there are fewer women there.

By the way, I have when they issue these reports and say that childcare and therefore flexible working is a woman issue. Men can request flexible working on the basis that they have young children just as well as women can.

I hate when they issue...

hey twickersmum where does your dh work?
CookieMonster how did you get into DBA? I've considered trying that but everyone wants experience. Our DBA used to be a developer and he said that too! Oracle Apps seems to be another popular one, but consultancy would mean time away from home....
uwila good point, I don't think there's ever been that many women in IT. But it's definitely even less than it was, I think. Somewhere I read it used to be about 25-30%, now it's more like 16%. I still think it is kind of expected that the woman will ask for the flexible working. DH is going to ask for it in September though, when dd goes to school!

Hi Paddington, I reckon that moving into DBA work is something best done at the same company - it must be just about impossible to move company and into a DBA job because as you say, they all want experience. I was lucky that my last company gave me the opportunity to move from Development into the DBA side of things. Any chance of that at your company?

I have to say though, that Oracle Apps seems to be the place to be .. lots of opportunities and it pays really well. I've dabbled with it and have decided it's not for me - you seem to spend your entire life applying patches to fix bugs!

As for your original point about less women going into IT, I'm not sure really. I've been in IT for 24 years and have always been either the only woman or one of extremely few in the team/department.

I think 25-30% sounds really high. I would have even thought that 16% sounds a bit high.

But, I don't actually mind being a minority. I like working with men -- so long as they don't refer to me as the department "bird".

I am in IT. I can't really judge about decline and fall of women in the industry though because the company that i work for hasn't exactly recruited anyone over the last 6 years!!

There aren't many of us here - that is true - but i don't believe there are any less or more than 10 years ago.

Definately less where I am now - it probably was about 20% (and shock horror I once worked on a team with a female majority) - now it's probably 10% at best. Last time we had a whole team event there was me and 19 guys! I'm not sure that it's totally down to people choosing to leave though - we had a lot of redundancies last year, and the proportion of women who were selected seemed a lot higher than the overall ratio would suggest. Possibly because we have a lot of contractors, who are almost exclusively male, and all the redundancies came from the permanent people.

Really? They keeo contractors and let go of staff? That's odd. Doesn't happen like that where I work.

Apparently contractors aren't considered part of "headcount" - and the object of the exercise was to reduce headcount. Crazy really, because the contractors cost us far more than the permanent people.

But, surely they have to pay out redudancy to staff, and that makes letting them go more expensive.

Don't ask me - something to do with our masters on the other side of the pond having made some commitment to their stockmarket on reducing headcount, without stopping to consider the relative costs. Perhaps because this is a global thing the same issues with redundancy don't apply in other countries, so although it's nonsensical here they still see it as appropriate?

Stupid Yanks.

Our leaders (also on the other side of the pond) got rid of car allowance a couple of years ago. I think they missed something in that car allowances provide a tax break. But, nonetheless, the axed them.

Just found this thread. Its really interesting to hear other people's experiences.

I have worked in IT since graduating from an electrical engineering degree. I have always generally been the token female of the team although in one job there was several of us.

I have never experienced any discrimination although if I went on training courses with my boss I was generally assumed to be his wife.

I dropped my hours to three days a week after having ds1 although when I was then made redundant I had to up them to 4 days a week to get another job. I'm now back down to 3 days having recently returned from maternity leave with ds2. I think flexible working needs to be a two way thing. I'm allowed to mix'n'match the days I work when I need time off for playschool events but I also volunteer to swap them about a bit if we have customers in or a struggling to maintain cover in school holidays etc.

I really enjoy working in IT and can't understand why the females are in the minority.

I think it depends on the sort of job in IT. I've seen a lot of female trainers and project managers, not so many hardware or network engineers.

The majority of women I find just aren't interested enough or think it's too hard. I dread trying to explain what I do for a living because people's eyes glaze over in about a nanosecond.

Was in IT too, left in 2001 when I was made redundant and then had ds1. I've been Country Manager for a Software company and Business Analyst. I was the only senior female account manager and in mainland Europe was respected - completely different in the Uk mind you. I've also been a project manager. No I'm looking at my options as I'm going back to work. Torn between going back into IT - big bucks over here in the USA or marketing for an easier option to ensure childcare and a life. Will keep you all posted.

It's really interesting to hear others experiences. I still like being in IT and don't really want to change at present - in the future maybe, but not right now. Sometimes being a woman can be an advantage - in my last course I was in with 30 men, and although they didn't really talk to each other much they did speak to me, and I found out lots of info!
CookieMonster that is interesting, I also did a bit of Oracle Apps in the past - mainly enhancements and bug fixing. The payroll was quite interesting but some of the reports!! complicated was not the word!!
You can get good money but I bet a lot of people have to travel.
alipiggie will be interested to hear what you decide, and how you get on.
arfishy I know what you mean about trying to explain what your job is! Most of my female friends say 'ooh, I couldn't do that it sounds really hard'. Our support staff here say they don't want to know about programming - and they're men! It probably does still have a certain image. Mind you, I couldn't do what one of my friends does - she has to deal with some really nasty clients on a daily basis... v stressful!