Computerworld reports on a recent trend in the IT industry (a significant component of the Creative Class). Women are leaving IT jobs for jobs that offer greater flexibility. Not unexpectedly, both women and the IT industry seem to be leading indicators of a bigger trend.
The U.S. economy is expected to add 1.5 million IT jobs by 2012, according to Department of Labor statistics. At the same time, Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that by 2012, 40% of women now in the IT workforce will move away from technical career paths to pursue more flexible business, functional, and research and development careers.
That projection doesn’t bode well for satisfying the projected future demand for skilled women to help diversify and round out teams and the managers that oversee those teams.
Full story here.
In contrast, however, The New York Times has a report that talks about efforts at many universities, including my own Carnegie Mellon, to try and improve the enrollment of women in computer science.
Moving emphasis away from programming proficiency was a key to the success of programs Dr. Blum and her colleagues at Carnegie Mellon instituted to draw more women into computer science. At one time, she said, admission to the program depended on high overall achievement and programming experience. The criteria now, she said, are high overall achievement and broad interests, diverse perspectives and whether applicants seem to have potential to be future leaders.
“In this more balanced environment, the men and women were more alike than different,” she said. “Some women are hackers and some men are hackers, and some women love applications and some men love applications.”
With the changes at Carnegie Mellon, women now make up almost 40 percent of computer science enrollees, up from 8 percent, Dr. Blum said.
Full story here. (Free sub required?)
So, are we doing them any favors by luring young women in high school into a career in computer science that they will eventually leave for being too inflexible?
Posted by Kevin Stolarick
April 24th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
“So, are we doing them any favors by luring young women in high school into a career in computer science that they will eventually leave for being too inflexible?” I’d guess the answer is, it depends on what they learn in the process. Most people will have, what, five careers in a lifetime? If computer science in an inflexible environment gives a good base of technical knowledge and knowing how to deal with inflexible companies, it could be great preparation for the next thing. And who knows, maybe some of them will make their environments more flexible.
One of my daughters is a pediatric physical therapist. Her undergrad degree was in Dance. To get into PT school she had to go back to college and take lots of science and math. But did her dance background help her in her career? She thinks it did.
Another daughter works for a national employee benefits firm. As I understand it, what she does is interpret between the HR people and the computer geeks. Her Masters is in Women’s Studies. Does her education help in her job? Who knows, but it certainly didn’t hurt to know critical thinking and communications styles.
For the young women that Dr. Blum says are hackers or love applications, encouraging them into computer science is great. It probably wouldn’t be so good for liberal arts types, but that’s true of the young men too.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:21 am
The “are we doing them any favors” line suggests that the current inflexibility is immutable. At some point, (perhaps) these companies will adapt to employee demands for increased flexibility, especially when they recognize that maintaining competitive advantage requires having ample numbers of workers, and, in particular, the unique offering of this particular segment of the workforce. The high costs of training a segment of the workforce, only to have them leave, should be enough to make the more innovative companies adapt (at least in theory, and maybe in this lifetime).