Ratio of Women in IT
Was at a Microsoft event today in TO, for their Unified Communication Server. Very cool system... integration of office phone, instant messaging, e-mail, voicemail, and video/web conferencing. Lots of potential...
Anyway, once again, I observed an interesting ratio of men vs. women in the IT sector. At pretty much every event I've ever been to, the ratio is typically somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 to 1. On a good day, it's still somewhere around 10 to 1. Why is that? I saw plenty of women in my program in college... maybe most of them haven't climbed the ladder yet? (most of the guys there, admittedly, were in the 30-50 age bracket)
The ratio in my workplace? 2 to 0.
Interestingly enough, companies like Telus (whom I used to work for) have a much better ratio... I'd say it was somewhere near 50%, which is a remarkable feat considering how few women you typically see at major IT events.
Just some interesting observations. Comments and other similar or contrary observations are welcomed.
Anyway, once again, I observed an interesting ratio of men vs. women in the IT sector. At pretty much every event I've ever been to, the ratio is typically somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 to 1. On a good day, it's still somewhere around 10 to 1. Why is that? I saw plenty of women in my program in college... maybe most of them haven't climbed the ladder yet? (most of the guys there, admittedly, were in the 30-50 age bracket)
The ratio in my workplace? 2 to 0.
Interestingly enough, companies like Telus (whom I used to work for) have a much better ratio... I'd say it was somewhere near 50%, which is a remarkable feat considering how few women you typically see at major IT events.
Just some interesting observations. Comments and other similar or contrary observations are welcomed.
Labels: IT
posted by Christian Conservative @ 7:06 p.m.
9 Comments:
At Tue Dec 04, 07:32:00 p.m. EST,
Drew Costen said…
There are quite a few women in my department here at the ISP I do tech support for, but only one who is actually a geek and gets my Star Trek, B5 and HHGTTG references.
At Tue Dec 04, 08:05:00 p.m. EST,
Anonymous said…
In a prior career I was a techie and frankly women either suck at this or are not interested. Many females prefer the admin jobs and that is where they tend to be. (real conservative)
At Tue Dec 04, 10:38:00 p.m. EST,
Anonymous said…
We have 2 IT people at my workplace. 1 male, 1 female.
At Tue Dec 04, 11:23:00 p.m. EST,
Christian Conservative said…
Actually, Real Conservative, one of the absolute hardest-core and best IT people I've ever met was a woman... and if I had the chance to work for her or with her, I'd do so in a heartbeat... she knows her stuff, and I've called her up a few times when I was planning out our new systems last year for advice. (she gets support calls from other people in other organizations on a regular basis)
We're talking the UBER-uber-geek here... largely self taught in 2000 and 2003 Active Directory (simply because they wouldn't send her on training at first), Novell wizard, and the hardest-core hardware person I've ever met... ANYWHERE, bar NONE.
So, you're comment that they either 1) suck, or 2) aren't interested is totally stereotypical, because there are a number of gals out there who blow that theory right out of the water.
(and the people of SW Ontario are VERY lucky to have her, supporting one of their healthcare organizations)
At Wed Dec 05, 12:26:00 a.m. EST,
Anonymous said…
"Was at a Microsoft event today in TO, for their Unified Communication Server. Very cool system... integration of office phone, instant messaging, e-mail, voicemail, and video/web conferencing. Lots of potential..."
Yeah... potential for your company to be Micro$loth's bitch. Ta heck with industry standards or competitive business practices... they'll just dangle the carrot and buzzword-enamored mucky mucks will be drooling all over it.
At Wed Dec 05, 09:54:00 p.m. EST,
Ally D said…
Ok, so, the IT sector I may not know too much about, tho one of the most brilliant computer minds I've ever met is a woman, and one of the few people my husband will admit to being much smarter than him!
I work in the music industry, and in Ontario the ration male to female is passable, but the east coast is completely male dominated. One province at a time I suppose...
At Sun Dec 09, 10:07:00 p.m. EST,
Anonymous said…
Interesting,
I have worked in private and public organizations. Broadly speaking, I find IT male dominated in the private sector (5 to 1) and female dominated in the public sector (3 to 2). I was told that it is because in the private sector IT is more "hard core" and women don't like the competition or conflict. They prefer quieter jobs with regular hours.
BTW, the person who told me that was a woman.
At Sun Dec 09, 10:15:00 p.m. EST,
Christian Conservative said…
Actually, I think your numbers are fairly accurate... I do tend to see a higher female to male ratio in the public sector than in the private sector.
Again, Telus Mobility seemed to be an exception.
At Sun Dec 09, 10:19:00 p.m. EST,
Christian Conservative said…
"in Ontario the ration male to female"
LOL... okay alison, you know you're from the same gene pool when you even make the same spelling mistakes!
I had to correct myself a dozen times when writing this post, because every time I went to type "ratio" it came out as "ration"!
(Full disclosure to my readers... "alison" is my lil sister)
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