Women in IT: how the industry’s lacking a female touch

Australia’s digital economy is now worth $79 billion and is predicted to grow to $139 billion by 2020, according to Deloitte. To ensure continued digital growth and economic wealth, it’s more important than ever for the nation’s education system to prioritise STEM courses to fill fields such as ICT that urgently require these skills. According to PwC, changing just 1% of the workforce into STEM roles would add $57.4 billion to Australia’s GDP.

Australia needs to find an extra 100,000 people skilled in ICT by 2020 if it’s to meet rising industry demand. At the same time, just 28% of ICT professionals are women. Overcoming this gender imbalance will no doubt significantly help to reduce the skills shortage that’s holding both the ICT industry and our digital economy back. According to Goldman & Sachs, a mere 6% increase in the female participation rate would boost Australia’s GDP by 11%.

Worryingly, fewer Australian women are undertaking IT courses today: the number of young women enrolled in IT courses at university fell dramatically from one in four to one in 10 over the past decade.

In IT companies across Australia, women are also underrepresented across every level and area, from the technical roles to executive board positions. However, this gap in representation does appear to be reducing. According to a 2015 survey, 65% of Australian organisations had hired more women in IT over the last five years, which is the highest increase among other developed countries such as Germany, Japan, UK, France, Singapore and Switzerland.

So what barriers are holding women back from entering the ICT workforce?

A new study by the Office of the Chief Scientist, ‘Busting myths about women in STEM’, revealed that the attrition of female talent from STEM-related fields begins in primary school and continues through to high school, university and then the workforce. The Office argues that this is because girls face barriers such as gender bias and a lack of role models and confidence in their competence in the field from an early age, despite the fact there’s no innate difference in ability.

Perhaps the lack of women represented in the ICT industry is also at least in part due to the lack of work flexibility, especially for women with young families. So what can we do to help support more women to enter and gain executive level roles within the ICT industry?

Providing flexible working conditions is important to ensure women continue to pursue their careers while raising young children. According to a report by Ernst and Young, women working part-time are more productive in the workforce than the rest of the working population, wasting only 11.1%, compared to an average of 14.5% among the rest of workers. Among recommendations such as affordable childcare, the report suggested that Australian organisations need to introduce or extend flexible work practices in order to attract and retain highly motivated, productive women.

It’s heartening to see that both the government and the opposition have made a concerted effort to encourage greater interest among girls and young women in STEM education. For instance, as part of the government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda, it’s pledged to invest $13 million over five years to support the greater participation of girls and women in the research sector, STEM industries, start-ups and entrepreneurial firms. Meanwhile, Labor have proposed ‘Girls into Code’, a $4.5 million grants program to support organisations that promote, encourage and inspire girls to learn code.

It’s critical that young women and girls especially are taught how to code and are exposed to computer science early in their education to encourage them to pursue a career in ICT. It’s time to move away from stereotypes to show women the diverse roles they can pursue in this kind of career. With so few women working within the ICT industry in Australia, we’re severely limiting our opportunities to advance our digital economy.