back to article Women account for just one fifth of the EU’s 8m IT jobs

The European Union has totted up all the IT jobs in the region for 2014 and this is what it found: nearly eight million ICT pros employed in the 28 member states and more than 80 per cent are men. They are also well-educated, with more than half completing tertiary education. Techies occupied just 3.7 per cent of all jobs - “a …

  1. Tezfair
    Facepalm

    none issue

    So, there's not that many women in IT, but surely thats their career choice. How many male nurses are there in hospitals? bet not as many as women. Well duh.

    1. Connor

      Re: none issue

      Agreed.

      "How many male nurses are there in hospitals?"

      Just 10% of nurses in the UK are men, and most of those are foreign (Filipinos usually where they have a much higher percentage of male nurses). So that is half the percentage of women in IT, yet precisely no-one is banging a drum about it or setting up initiatives to combat why men feel nursing is not a career for them.

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: none issue

        That's because IT is a career that really makes a difference, with incredible job prospects, high earnings, and near infinite social status.

        1. jelabarre59

          Re: none issue

          > That's because IT is a career that really makes a difference, with incredible

          > job prospects, high earnings, and near infinite social status.

          Did you forget to attach the SARCASM flag to that post?

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: none issue

          And don't forget unbelievable work life balance.

      2. Old Handle

        Re: none issue

        I have actually seen an ad trying to get more men into nursing. (This was in California). Though I suspect it was more driven by a shortage of nurses in general at the time, not specifically because anyone cared about the gender disparity.

        If there is an IT shortage, I suppose it makes sense to try and get more women for the same reason. But it should be done in an intelligent, realistic way, not by arbitrarily calling the lack of women a problem and insinuated that the current, mostly male IT workers are to blame.

      3. Jeremy Puddleduck

        Re: none issue

        But there are schemes to encourage men into nursing, so stop repeating the same tired old stories. You can repeat the "women clearly never want to do STEM" all you want but evidence proves it's not true.

        http://www.professionalnursing.org/article/S8755-7223(10)00146-8/abstract

        Gender Discrimination and Nursing: Α Literature Review

        http://work.chron.com/gender-equality-issues-nursing-careers-11250.html

        Nursing remains a predominantly female field in 2012, although the number of men in nursing has increased. About 7 percent of nurses are men, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Gender equality cuts both ways in nursing; men are both more likely to succeed in certain areas of nursing and less likely to be hired in others. Male nurses earn higher salaries overall, but more women work part time than men, which impacts both their earnings and their promotion potential.

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11202075/No-job-for-a-man-Meet-the-male-midwives.html

        Mountford was assigned to a midwife in a doctor’s practice, where he found objections came from other professionals rather than the women he was supposed to be caring for. “The GPs there just weren’t keen on having a man doing it, so I was sent to be assistant to another midwife in a community hospital.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: none issue

      When I took my son to a Uni open day a coujple of years ago we first encountered a group of other prospective midwifery students being taken to their talks - they were 100% female. Then we had a general intro talk with students from several courses holding open days that day after which poeple for each course we sent off to their seperate subject talks etc - first to go was "media and communications" - again 100% female. Eventually it was just the engineers left ... well not quite 100% male but getting pretty close.

    3. Velv
      Childcatcher

      Re: none issue

      While I agree to a large extent, part of the article is about the "nature v nurture" debate - just how much do we influence the choices in later life by the directions we set in earlier life?

      There are many great parents who allow their children freedom. But even in the liberal UK there remain local cultures and communities (and I mean old fashioned British) that view males and females differently. How do we make them equal everywhere from birth?

      1. Paul 135

        Re: none issue

        Newshock for you: male and female ARE different, and have different interests. Accept it and move on. In my A-level physics class there were zero girls.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: none issue

      @Tezfair This same point is made in various ways throughout this thread. It is simply a way of justifying the status quo. Middle class, middle aged men - and I am one - are perhaps incorriglble but psychological and social barriers are at play here. And the best way to dismantle these barriers is to start with children

      1. Grikath

        Re: none issue

        "And the best way to dismantle these barriers is to start with children"

        There you hit a problem... No amount of "You Can Be Anything You Want" propaganda at schools over the past say.. 2-3 decades has delivered any real results in this matter. And it's not as if , in any western European nation, a school that explicitly or implicitly promoted gender bias would be allowed to live very long. Especially the ones that are preparing kids for a higher education, like IT.

        This is compounded by well over two decades of Preferential Hiring practices, which as the numbers show, still haven't had any real result.

        You'd be stupid to go in IT as a woman.. Especially if you're competitive and career-minded. Not when the corporate world offers a career in HR. Why join the tussle for Pasha, when you can be the Grand Visier, and one that's considered Hard To Replace as well?

      2. rtb61

        Re: none issue

        You really do not get it. IT is a great field for introvert computer geeks, for everyone else not so much. Biology plays a huge role ie there is a world of difference between making a deposit and having to carry that result of the data extraction from the deposit and it's conjunction with a living data repository, for nine months and then providing additional sustenance and data through to self sustenance.

        This produces in the majority inherently different traits, logical genetic traits, ignoring those is stupid. Even in university the difference is profound, spend time in the psychology area of the schools and you are exposed to the intense vagaries of many emotions being shared and expressed, an intense cacophonous interaction of human psyche's.

        In contrast got to the IT areas of a university and it because a place of peace and calm, only intermittently interrupted by first year 'this a computer' students. The difference is huge and one kind of student is attracted to one environment (those logically more suited to the intense socio emotional interactions with children) and the other environment suits those who simply do not need to socialise as much, who in fact tend to avoid intense social interactions.

        Such is life, of two sexes, one the sacrificial donor and the other the carrier and rearer (whether it be a bug or fish or mammal, one sacrifices and the other nurtures and those different roles produce different genetic outcomes to support those roles, in the majority).

        1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

          @rtb61

          >You really do not get it. IT is a great field for introvert computer geeks,

          This I almost agree with. But unless the gene for being an introverted geek is specific to the Y chromosome, then introverted computer geeks comes in all karyotypes, gonads, phenotypes and genders.

          >In contrast got to the IT areas of a university and it because a place of peace and calm,

          Out in the real world, IT can be a little more turbulent and social interaction important.

          >Such is life, of two sexes, one the sacrificial donor and the other the carrier and rearer

          And now we've hit outright sexism. You can be a carer and a nurturer, too.

  2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Assumptions

    Smart women are pressured out of science and engineering and into well paid professions that don't consider them too old at 30?

    Women medical students have outnumbered men for years and as they graduate and old men retire the number of women doctors will outnumber men in the next 1-2 years.

    Teaching is becoming women only. Law is about 40% women but proportion of female law students is increasing faster.

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Assumptions

      It has been my good fortune to work with many smart women in IT, some of whom have had more than one 29th birthday.

      Certainly our industry has a few misogynists, dinosaurs and the occasional dickhead. And some of these have Y chromosomes. But I do not recognise IT as a particularly female-unfriendly place nor one with an age bias (unless you think the preponderance of elderly COBOL programmers is reverse-ageism).

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Assumptions

        Try getting hired in silicon valley with a grey beard,

        I think ageism is the major cause of fewer women rather than outright sexism.

        Increasingly you need a postgraduate degree to be considered at the hot big companies, so you start your career nearer to 25. If it's harder to get a job after 35 and any break means your experience of last years hot technology is obsolete - then it's a lot harder to take a couple of years out to have children than it would be in medicine or law.

        The same thing happens in academia, it's often said that a PhD+postdoc costs you your first born child - but at least once you get a permanent job you don't have quite such a ticking clock.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Men probably account for <1% of nail technicians and only about 10% of primary school teachers are male.

    Another couple of outrageous statistics are

    1) 100% of natural human fathers are male.

    2) 100% of natural human mothers are female.

    Honestly, when I hear PC shit like this I can half understand why people listen to Donald Trump as an antidote.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Bell end reader?

      Can you explain how one's genitalia affect one's ability to work in IT? Do you use an exotic form of 2FA where you plug your penis into a USB port in order to log in? (What I'm calling the "bell end reader".) Does code only work if it's written in sperm?

      >Honestly, when I hear PC shit like this I can half understand why people listen to Donald Trump as an antidote.

      People listen to him because they're authoritarians.

      I really shouldn't be so combative. But...

      1. Rande Knight

        Re: Bell end reader?

        This has been envisioned actually.

        Buttobi CPU

  4. The Dude
    Mushroom

    Seriously?

    Is there some rule or impediment or anything that prevents girls from studying this subject and finding a job in the industry? I am not aware of any such impediment, and near as can be determined, girls are actually encouraged more than boys to study STEM subjects.

    The general consensus is that girls don't like these subjects. Having worked in this industry for more years than I care to remember, I don't blame them.

    What is truly a shame is that The Register appears to now be taking an SJW politically correct approach to this type of issue. It's a sad day in the IT world.

    1. Andrew Moore

      Re: Seriously?

      Exactly what I was thinking- the article did not appear to demonstrate that there was any "barrier to entry"

    2. codejunky Silver badge

      Re: Seriously?

      I had to check the address when I read this article, I thought I had stumbled onto the Guardian or some "men haters weekly" magazine. This is the kind of PC rubbish I expected when I read about the regs new years resolutions. It is good to see that the commenter's know better

      1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

        Re: Seriously?

        If you really can't see a difference between El Graun and those "men haters weeklies" then you've got to get out more. Those blogs are just awful. But El Graun is relatively sane, modulo Jessica Valenti.

        1. codejunky Silver badge

          Re: Seriously?

          @ Brewster's Angle Grinder

          After reading your comment I have decided to try and bring you to a realisation. You seem to be telling me that the Guardian and "men haters weeklies" are not the same, on the condition we exclude one of the most prominent men hater weekly writers of the Guardian.

          I think you are clinging to a hope that the Guardian is sane while stating the proviso that its insane ramblings are excluded. Hell using that justification we could call a duck a fish as long as we exclude enough of its most prominent features.

          1. ElectricFox
            Coat

            Re: Seriously?

            I really hope El Reg doesn't try to push this SJW shit on us. Just as I thought the ethics in journalism debate had won the day.

            1. Tom 13

              Re: Just as I thought the ethics in journalism

              Then you haven't been paying attention. El Reg regards #Gamergate as another manifestation of the He Man Women Haters club, and has studiously avoided reporting on it. There is no surer sign of an SJW fortress.

          2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

            @codejunky

            You've got to look at the proportions. There are always a few bad apples who have to be excluded. I won't judge 1.6 billions Muslims on the basis of a few violent twats or every male IT worker on the basis of El Reg commentards. El Graun has a stable of feminist columnists some of whom advance women's causes. Elsewhere in the media you can find columnists who advance men's causes. It's free; go where you like. (And don't blame feminists or SJWs for the closure of Nuts.)

            But El Graun is a million miles from the radfem extreme. I would link to some posts but I recoil from dipping into that horrible, corrosive cesspit. Even, JV, who I haven't read in months, is speaking to an American audience, rather than a British one. I just wish she would stop fighting for an easier life for herself and start fighting for equality.

    3. Jeremy Puddleduck

      Re: Seriously?

      You know what, just because you believe something it doesn't make it a consensus. That takes evidence. The attitude that this is the way it is because girls and women don't like nasty technical tough is lazy, and selfish because you're just saying "I don't have to do anything, assess my behaviour or my working environment or -God forbid - even change your behaviour or environment. And thus propagate the status quo.

      If your (incorrectly held) belief were true than the number of women in any technical IT/engineering field would be pretty much consistent across the world. Evidence (included in this article and this one :http://www.engineeringuk.com/View/?con_id=145) show regional differences within Europe, ever wonder why there is a statistically significant difference between apparently similar countries? Perhaps the women in Greece are biologically different to those in Sweden? Or perhaps the education system, peers, parental attitude, work environment and depiction of role models might possibly have an influence?

      That personal consensus of yours is looking pretty flaky

  5. GrumpenKraut
    Pint

    "It's IT, damnit."

    Yes!

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: "It's IT, damnit."

      Damn it, Jim! or Dave or Hal

      1. MiguelC Silver badge

        Re: "It's IT, damnit."

        If it's in bureaucratspeak, it may be IT, but not as we know it...

  6. Ben Liddicott

    Also sewage worker and bin person

    Only discrimination can account for the dreadful underrepresentation of women in these vital industries!

    Meanwhile 70% of PR are women, and that's fine.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Also sewage worker and bin person

      Meanwhile 70% of PR are women, and that's fine.

      Meanwhile 70% of HR are women, and that's fine?

      Must be a typo...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really?

    As a female in IT this does not surprise me in the slightest.

    To get into IT you need a thick skin (whether male of female), and a willingness to work unsocial hours for little pay.

    Then there's the culture. It's improving... or at least I've not seen some of the worst behaviour for a while. But without the self-belief to counter having my skills called into question because I'm female, my job role/position to be questioned (who did I sleep with) because I'm female, and a robust attitude to personal/unwelcome remarks and body contact.... I'd have been pushed out of the industry long ago. If not run away screaming.

    1. GrumpenKraut

      Re: Really?

      > To get into IT you need a thick skin (whether male of female),

      You can replace IT with almost anything and your statement remains true.

      > and a willingness to work unsocial hours for little pay.

      I can easily name occupations apart from IT where that is far worse.

      Fun fact: every single male with two brain cells to rub together I ever talked to was unhappy about the low percentage of females in the tech sector (not only IT).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Really?

        every single male with two brain cells to rub together I ever talked to was unhappy about the low percentage of females in the tech sector

        Ahh, but they weren't unhappy enough to get themselves a job in marketing. Mind you it is IT's loss that there aren't more women, largely because IME women make better managers than men. With a few exceptions, women listen when other people talk, and they pick up the social cues that us blokes steam roller right across.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Really?

          My experience of women managers is quite the opposite, I found that too many would attempt to use their sex to manipulate both upwards and downwards and if you didnt swoon at their attention they made life difficult for you via politics.

          I have met an lot of bad male managers as well but at least they didnt require me to find them attractive, those males that found me attractive would take no for an answer and wouldnt bitch about me just because I turned them down.

          I will add that in my experience many women were promoted to managers as they were unable or willing to do the job they were recruited for, bumping up to lower managers being thought a good way to stop them creating more problems than they solved.

          1. Naselus

            Re: Really?

            "I will add that in my experience many women were promoted to managers as they were unable or willing to do the job they were recruited for, bumping up to lower managers being thought a good way to stop them creating more problems than they solved."

            I think you'll find that's just 90% of middle managers, regardless of age, gender, or species.

            1. Tom 13

              Re: I think you'll find that's just 90% of middle managers,

              Perhaps. But the males don't get to scream "sexual harassment" with a presumption that you're guilty if they are offended, which makes them more manageable.

              Of all the incompetent techs I've worked with (and thankfully there have been very few) the worst was a woman on the networking team who was obviously promoted to make their quota numbers. She rarely offered an opinion at the opening of a debate, and the only one she held onto firmly was a horrible one about patching something that couldn't BE patched, yet senior management had accepted the risk because of the service model they chose. Still every time there was a special award for an IT Project, her name was on the list.

        2. Vic

          Re: Really?

          With a few exceptions, women listen when other people talk, and they pick up the social cues that us blokes steam roller right across.

          Sadly, there are more than a few exceptions - and there does seem to be a class of female manager that finds it necessary out "out-bloke" the blokes.

          It's horrible to behold. I don't stay long in a job when one of those turns up...

          Vic.

    2. ElectricFox
      FAIL

      Re: Really?

      "my job role/position to be questioned (who did I sleep with) because I'm female"

      Enforcement of quotas at board levels/cabinet MPs etc is going to make this a lot worse...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The funnel

    > "But how do we quantify the gender and cultural bias - parents and peers as well as school - that funnels clever girls in Europe away from STEM and into softer, lower-paid careers, as dictated by their arts and humanities degrees."

    Not sure this is generally true, women are significantly more than half of medical graduates and most doctors will be women soon despite the historic bias.

    It is IT and engineering specifically, rather than sciences generally that women don't like.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tell the media to stop to tell us how much (female) fashion models are cool...

    .... maybe giving girls different role models could help?

    It's not parents alone, we live in a society where media are everywhere and they promote just one type of woman - the one you can sell better. Then they are true hypocrites when they complain about how few women are in jobs outside the standard media female stereotype.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: Tell the media to stop to tell us how much (female) fashion models are cool...

      I say we pay coders metric fucktonnes of cash, have paparazzi camp out round their mansions 24/7, and devote magazines to rating the slogans on our T-shirts. Who's with me?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There are excellent female IT workers !

    I have no problem with any sex working in a techinical capacity so long as they are capable and willing to do the work. Sadly far more women are employed in computing/electronic since it became IT than are capable or interested in the work.

    Equality is in actuality self evident, the majority of women choose not to work in this field as they have more options and less interest in this area.

    How about instead of paying people to shout about jobs with less women they have to first investigate how many apply and are sucessful in the field as a percentage of total applications. The truth is that an equally qualified and interested female has a better chance of getting an IT job than their male counterparts when you examine how many bother to apply.

    1. GrumpenKraut
      WTF?

      Re: There are excellent female IT workers !

      > Sadly far more women are employed in computing/electronic since it became IT than are capable or interested in the work.

      You sure can back that one up by something other than mere ramblings.

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: There are excellent female IT workers !

      If she can lift a 3U or a 3000va UPS, she's in! Next thing you know it's "Eyes down dink" I for one welcome my oversized overlords request for snu snu...

  11. Banksy

    Front line combat troops

    We need a lot more women on the front line, it's a disgrace that there aren't more.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Front line combat troops

      Here in the USA they just announced a ban on discrimination on women in special forces units.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'totted'

    Totted as in its nearly 'totty'? Not calculated or added? Hmm...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    #everydaysexism

    It's best not to overload the laydees fluffy little brains with too much tech-talk.

    Paris as she was an IT girl.

  14. Dr. G. Freeman

    Don't care what genitals they have, or not have - as long as they know how to do their job right.

    Sadly, that's a very small percentage of people I meet.

  15. chivo243 Silver badge

    As it sits

    The IT Game is a man's world. That doesn't mean women can't do the job, they can, but many are not comfortable in the shark tank. Therefore, they do not pursue this kind of job.

    I once worked with a woman in IT, and she was treated like one of the guys. One guy we worked with was misogynistic and would make off color/sexist jokes in her presence. One day I asked her if he offended her, and she replied "not really, but, you don't want to know what we women say behind men's backs."

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My guess

    The number of woman in IT are so due to personal choice.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: My guess

      I think most people want to be with people like themselves. If people don't share your values then every decision becomes a negotiation and the losers harbour resentment or end up "at war" to defend their culture. That's an exhausting way to live.

      TL;DR there won't be more women in IT till there are more women in IT.

  17. Popofla

    Fools Errand

    I have been an IT professional for 35 years. I worked hard to encourage my daughter to follow in my footsteps since she was 2 years old. That lasted into the first year of college when she told me she didn't want to study computers and wanted to be an elementary school teacher. She is a wonderful and brilliant teacher I couldn't be happier. For my two younger sons I did not try to encourage them to go into the computer field but in college and grad school both changed their course of study to computer science.

    Sorry I listen to this BS when I was younger.

    An old fool.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: Fools Errand

      My son can sing, I can't carry a tune in a bucket strapped to my neck... but I learned from my father that the son does as he wishes. My son is free to pursue any path he likes, but if IT is involved, I'm here for questions.

      Good for her, the world is a bit short of good teachers.

    2. Tom 13

      Re: An old fool.

      Not any more.

      It sounds like you are supporting both your daughter in her career choice and your sons in theirs. In my book that makes you a fine father, and I will not fault you for initially trying to encourage your daughter in a career you love.

      May the peace of God and His Blessings be upon you and your family.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Positive" discrimination is still discrimination

    When I did IT at college all the students in my class were male. Surprisingly we had 3 female teachers and 3 male teachers.

    Here's my experience of "positive" discrimination. A certain search engine was giving out free vouchers for women and minorities interested in coding. I'm south asian so I guess I counted as a "minority" right? WRONG! In the small print it said Chinese/Japanese/Indians can't apply or something along those lines. "Positive" discrimination is still discrimination.

    1. Steven Roper

      Re: "Positive" discrimination is still discrimination

      "I'm south asian so I guess I counted as a "minority" right?"

      Nope, afraid not. The term "minority" refers to carefully selected groups who are being exploited as tokens to advance an authoritarian social-Marxist agenda. In order to "benefit" from this kind of discrimination you have to be one or more of these tokens: female, black, and/or homosexual. Unless you are one or more of those three, you are "privileged" and therefore must be discriminated against at every opportunity.

      I think Muslims are starting to be included in the PC token list, so you could try converting to Islam. Although that could get you put on a terrorist watch list or something. The media propagandists seem to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment even as they decry Islamophobia, whereas they are very unified and single-minded in pushing pro-feminist/pro-black/LGBT sentiment, so I suspect putting Muslims on the official protected-minority list is serving a different political agenda than the social-Marxist female-black-LGBT axis. Maybe encouraging social discord in order to get people to demand more freedom-destroying laws or something along those lines.

  19. nilfs2
    Holmes

    I believe the problem is present on all engineering positions

    I haven't seen much female electrical engineers, or female chemical engineers, or mechanical engineers, and so on. Most women don't like engineering, I guess it is related to how their brains evolved to be inclined to adapt better to social aspects of life, and men evolved to adapt better to build and fix stuff.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: I believe the problem is present on all engineering positions

      Been a bit of a backfire here in Canada.

      The women in science and engineering programs have been phenomenally successful so that a majority of new graduates in many areas are women.

      They all were immediately hired by the mining and oil&gas industry.

      Then oil and metals collapsed and the newest, least senior, least valuable employees are the first to be laid off. So a lot of young women that were encouraged to break the mold and embrace this demand for STEM are screwed.

      Just like all the low grade Java-school bootcamp graduate programmers were in 2001 but this is making news because these victims are a lot more photogenic.

  20. ElectricFox
    Childcatcher

    You may choose either:

    Freedom of opportunity to pursue the career people are interested in

    Enforcement of quotas assigning people to careers to get an equal outcome

  21. Smoking Gun

    I once kissed a girl.... on the lips...

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Sisters only count in Norfolk

  22. jelabarre59

    Smarter

    Perhaps there are so few women in IT because they're *smarter* than us dumb males, and have *avoided* that dead-end career...

  23. Brian Allan

    I've been an IT manager. You ask "Where are the women in IT"?

    First, there aren't that many women with IT education and/or experience to begin with.

    Second, people in IT are usually fairly young. And young women quite often want a family and leave on pregnancy leaves.

    Third, IT is a fast moving profession. Women out on a year's pregnancy leave have to be re-educated upon return... An expense firms don't want, though they won't admit it.

    Fourth, even if there were more women with an IT experience, I doubt they would remain in IT jobs.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Compulsion is the Answer

    I have seen few women working in IT, and I think that there should be an equal number. I would also like to see them retire at the same age (now), work on the slaughterhouse killing floor, like men do, empty cess pits, like mine do, work as miners, like men do. Come on feminists, you go first! What do you mean you don't want THAT type of equality!?

  25. Tom 13

    ...reported hard-to-fill vacancies...

    Hard to fill vacancies? Or impossible to fill vacancies because they don't want to pay enough to fill the job?

    Self reporting is a horrible way to measure this statistic. And that's just the first mistake in this article.

  26. Dallas IT

    What is the right percentage of females that "should" be in IT? 50%? Why is that? Are women represented in all other fields in equal measure to men? Doubtful. So why is this a worthy goal?

    Do you intend to force them to choose the field whether they want to or not?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Plus what happens when there's 52% women? Do you encourage females to leave the field then to make room?

      Shall we start with HR and other plush no real responsibility and accountability power grabbing positions?

  27. Greg D

    Equality culture droning on its useless horn again

    Not every fucking industry is going to have a 50/50 split of men and women. It's a well known fact men and women like different things - whether a result of culture or upbringing is irrelevant.

    It would be lovely to get more girls in the IT dept, but lets not get ahead of ourselves and make a big thing about it. It has nought to do with sexism in the industry or anything like that. Women in general tend to be less interested in tech. It's THAT simple.

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