How to attract more females to the technology sector was the top item on the agenda at a recent Women in IT roundtable. The event, hosted by recruitment firm Computer People, brought together women working in a variety of IT roles.

The discussion began with how the IT recruitment process can be changed to attract women. Anne Cantelo, who helped set up Computer Clubs for Girls at E-Skills UK, and is now heading the healthy living for teens initiative, Fit Future, cited an Open University study that showed women tend not to respond to job adverts that focus on the technical requirements.

“Recruiters need to sell the job on what it’s achieving and then list the skills,” Cantelo said. “Adverts shouldn’t say ‘We need C++,’ but ‘You need to create a system that will help hospitals do this’.”

The same trend is seen at universities. “Women don’t apply for computer science courses, they apply for business and IT degrees,” Cantelo added.

Amina West, vice-president for the UK and Ireland at IT services and software provider Compuware, said women need to push themselves forward, as they often have to work twice as hard for career breaks. “Men tend to ask for more training, while women only get their share through the appraisal process,” she added. “If women don’t ask, they don’t get.”

Receiving the right training is particularly important for women attempting to return to the sector after raising children. “IT moves so rapidly that if you take a career break, it’s hard to keep up,” warned Amanda Zuydervelt, founder of lifestyle directory StyleBible.com.

Flexible working

More flexible working practices could help redress the gender imbalance. Enda Kenneally, UK sales director at communications specialist Mitel Networks, cited a Mitel study that indicated 42 percent of managers do not trust their employees to work from home.

Jane Binner, associate director at Computer People, argued that the tech sector in particular needs to update its working practices. “The IT industry is not very flexible. You always need to deliver more systems or make more sales,” she added.

West pointed to Compuware as one organisation that has made these changes, offering flexible benefits such as childcare vouchers to attract and retain women.

Mentoring programmes in schools and the workplace were cited as another useful aid for attracting women to IT. Zuydervelt also highlighted initiatives such as the BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards and the Grazia O2 X Awards, which help to raise awareness of opportunities for female IT workers and entrepreneurs.

But the industry still has an image problem to overcome. “We need to do a PR job at schools,” said Dawn Pollard, project manager at educational software and services provider RM. “Girls aren’t taught that IT is not necessarily about technical or programming skills.”

Cantelo added, “It’s important for teachers to make the link between IT skills gained at school, and going into a career with these skills. Some universities are still pushing computer science courses, but employers don’t want that.”

The forthcoming Diploma in IT from E-Skills UK, aimed at 14- to 19-year-olds, could help address these issues. “The diploma is an alternative to computing GCSEs and A-Levels,” Cantelo said. “It teaches professional IT skills rather than user skills. It’s as much about business and people skills as about IT.”

Pollard added that the government’s Building Schools for the Future scheme could help challenge girls’ perceptions that IT is a geeky, boys-only domain, because it shows how technology is integrated into our lives.

Television programmes also have a part to play. It was suggested that The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den could use their influence more to demonstrate the opportunities available to IT women, while Channel 4’s The IT Crowd was criticised for conforming to stereotypes rather than challenging them.

Besides trying to attract women, there is also a need to convince firms of the benefits of employing female IT workers.

Business benefits

“Women work well in teams and a lot of IT projects need joint working,” said Cantelo. Female team members also help firms gain a different perspective on product development. “In the car industry, for example, once they got women involved they found out female buyers were interested in safety,” Cantelo added.

According to Kenneally, women offer firms customer-facing skills and are good at multi-tasking. “They also tend to be conscientious workers, and worry about how they interact in groups,” she added.

The main benefit for UK firms is finding skilled IT staff. Binner pointed out that of the 300,000 people registered on the Computer People database, fewer than 10 per cent are female. “There’s a shortage of good people working in IT. Firms need to tap into any market, whether it’s women with young kids or the over-50s,” she said.