Computer Science: Why Aren't Women Pursuing IT Jobs? Part II

As a woman who has worked in IT for the last 15 years, I quickly realized that I was a minority member of what often seems to be a “men only” tech club.  I thought that the situation for women in IT would have changed since I first got involved in it, but after reading the NY Times article (see Part I of this posting), it appears that it’s only gotten worse. Recent studies say the number of women pursuing CS degrees or tech jobs are dwindling quickly and no one seems to know why. I thought I’d share a little of what my experience has been like as a woman who’s worked in the IT trenches.

In the mid 90’s, I was hired by school administration as the first and only female technical support specialist in their school district. When they offered me the position, I was already working as an independent computer applications trainer for a computer training center. But, the thought of expanding my skills set to networking and troubleshooting seemed to be a natural progression in my career goals. In my new role I could still train adults the ins and outs of technology, except now I be teaching teachers, teacher aides, office staff, custodial staff, cafeteria staff, and administrators. The opportunity would give me the chance to tackle what I think may be one of the root causes of the gender bias that exists in IT.

I felt that if I could reach female teachers and get them excited about technology, then they would pass that enthusiasm on to their students. I was sure the trickle down effect would be an inevitable result that could only benefit the students. Students would begin not only to think that technology was cool, but that female teachers that knew about technology were pretty “cool” too! At least, that is what I hoped would happen. 

Now, before you start thinking that was my only interests in taking the tech support job, were based on altruistic reasons; I must confess that I was also enticed by the benefits of working for a school system. Affordable medical insurance, a good salary, and summers off were a big draw, as you might well imagine. So without hesitation I accepted their offer, but I continued to teach computer night courses as an independent consultant.  Eventually, I had to drop my night teaching job though, as my new tech support job required me to put in more after-school work hours. Network wiring, hardware installs, and other tasks are best done when there aren’t 800 kids and 70 staff wandering around the building.

As time went by, I realized that being a woman, working in what is traditionally a male dominated field, wouldn’t be easy for me. All of the other technical support specialists in the district were men. All of the application vendors and network engineering consultants that I worked with, were men. That wasn’t a problem for me, but it became apparent that it was a problem for some of them. I say “some” because not all of the men I dealt with were living by an ideology that should have died long before the 1990’s.  All I can say about my experience then as a woman in IT is that I could understand how the Geico caveman feels.

But, I loved the job I was doing and I wasn’t willing to give it up easily. I should add that not all of the men thought I belonged  “back in the kitchen”.  In fact, some of my strongest allies were men who’d worked in IT engineering for many years for a variety of companies including Lucent Technologies. Their stories, their struggles, their insights, and their encouragement helped me to persevere in spite of the obstacles that I had to face.