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Equity and equality: finding the gender balance

Anita Prabhu, Information Age

12/05/2007 15:31:09

The insecurity caused by the dotcom bust and social constructs which do not respect and treat women as equals in the workplace are contributory factors.

Merit-based reward and recognition systems are needed. Transparency and equity need to be demonstrated to encourage women to stay within the industry. Flexible hours and non-monetary advantages will entice women to this industry.

A gender balance in the workplace will lead to higher levels of innovation and productivity. Women need to be more assertive and collaborative in changing the culture within their organisations and setting expectations to be treated equitably.

How out of balance is the current ratio? Statistics vary:

Australian Bureau of Statistics and other data show that 24 per cent of professionals in the ICT workforce are female. Department of Employment and Workplace Relations data, however, indicate that 19 per cent of all ICT technical and professional employment in all industries is female (ACS Employment Survey 2006).

According to DICITA women constitute 20 per cent of the ICT workforce and only 15 per cent of ICT specialist roles.

The chart below, extracted from the ACS survey, indicates that a higher percentage of women are employed in part-time and hourly contracted employment than in full-time employment further exacerbating the low participation of women in this profession. However, these percentages were not reflected in the response rates of the ACS Employment Survey 2006, which were even lower, where only 15 per cent of the respondents were female. This lower than optimum response and shorter working hours by women may reinforce a deeper problem of diminishing interest in an ICT profession by women.

In addition, these figures will continue to drop in coming years. BRW (27/7/2006, Pg 26) indicates that participation of women is declining rapidly in the ICT sector. Female enrolment into ICT courses in high schools and tertiary study has dropped over the last 10 years.

In some universities enrolment has dropped from 24 to 10 per cent. Philip Argy, President of the ACS, says that where total student enrolments in ICT programs have dropped 20 per cent per annum over the last two years, female participation has pulled back by 50 per cent in the past year alone (BRW, 27/7/06). So the pipeline to the workforce is steadily drying up.

These statistics are disturbing and are a major concern in the current skills shortage Australia is experiencing and is projected to experience in the coming years. Information technology underpins Australia's economic growth and ICT professionals are spread across all sectors of the economy.

Australia's fastest growing industries depend on ICT and spend huge amounts to stay globally competitive.

Manufacturing industries are turning to technology to salvage their futures. Government administration and defence are committed to technology to gain economies of scale and provide easier access to information. Together they employ about 70 per cent of the ICT workforce.

As participation in the ICT industry continues to drop this will have serious competitive consequences for Australia in both the global and domestic markets.

Innovation Nowhere will women's declining participation have more widespread and harmful economic consequences than in the ICT industry. Innovation - the backbone of business survival - is severely threatened by the exodus of women from this profession. Men and women have different ways of thinking. A greater gender balance will enable different thinking to be applied to design and construction of technology to develop new products that meet needs not being met now.

Women-owned businesses are growing significantly says Kylie Nicolson, the Diversity Manager for IBM Australia and New Zealand (BRW, 27/7/2006). The growth rate in America for women-owned businesses is 19 per cent compared to 9 per cent for all-firms growth rate so business opportunities will also be missed by women locking themselves out of a lucrative career in a growing technology industry.

Government Sadly, the Federal Government has failed to focus on the critical consequences Australia will face with the alarming decline in female participation in the technology arena. The Minister for Communications, Information technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, convened a summit on women's participation in ICT in June 2005.

Su Spencer, past Director of ACS-Women board says: "What started out as a summit about women got hijacked by the Generation Y issue. We really have no idea about what works with women" (BRW, 27/7/2006).

Although Senator Coonan is aware about this issue there is no concrete evidence that the problem is receiving serious consideration from government and does not show up on their agenda.

The Issues So, what are the reasons? Why is the participation of women so low and continuing to plummet? How can these issues be addressed?

Industry image: BRW, in the same article, suggests that the ICT industry as a whole suffers an image problem after the dotcom bust when thousands of ICT workers lost their jobs and the industry has been making a slow and painful recovery. Parents are therefore discouraging their children from embarking on an ICT career.

Uncool: Additionally, ICT education is seen as 'geeky', 'hard', 'not cool', 'too technical and boring' by girls.

Schools: IT curriculum in schools is not pitched at the right level and does not encourage students to continue IT in university. Schoolteachers need to be IT qualified and knowledgeable about new technologies and their uses. They need to be passionate about their subject and inspire students. More and up-to-date technology resources need to be provided to students and teachers in terms of connectivity and desktop solutions.

Resources: Education and awareness campaigns targeting parents, students and career advisers are important but funding and resources are difficult to obtain.

Role models: Television shows and magazines do not show role models or profile successful women in the profession.

Flexibility: Flexibility in working hours is another issue. Projects require long working hours and women who have the added responsibility of children and families to manage find it difficult to find a work-life balance. As the ICT industry matures managers must become more aware of these requirements of their staff and allow for this in their plans.

The birds and the bees: Attracting women into the workforce will encourage more men to stay in a balanced workplace says Sue Bartlett, former chief information officer with Unilever Australia.

Changing industry: All industries are increasing their reliance on ICT and the nature of jobs is changing from one of 'geeky' stereotype to skills women excel in such as analysis, communication and organisation. There are plenty of opportunities in this fastest-growing and best-paid profession.

Social constructs Sharon Timberlake's research digs deeply into social constructs, culture and the distribution of benefits (Social capital and gender in the workplace, 2005). Her conclusions indicate that ICT has been a male dominated environment for a long time.

Women are excluded from informal networks and are often left out of informal but crucial meetings in the men's room and corridors. The social construct is such that social conversations take place when women are present but 'serious' conversations often do not include women.

Research conducted by Trauth and Howcroft (Critical empirical research in IS: an example of gender and the IT workforce, 2006) shows that women respond to this in individual ways. The research highlights the role of power dynamics in understanding what sits beneath the surface of observations about women's experience in the IT workforce.

It also helps to shift the focus away from predominantly essentialist theories that dichotomise men and women and towards recognition of the diversity among women in the IT field.

Some women make snide and oblique remarks but it does not seem to make men aware of the real issues. Others try to change the conversation to inclusive and meaningful discussion, but when this does not work they give up. Some women are feminist, while others do not perceive that they are being treated in a different way.

Timberlake points out that men form many superficial and temporary network relationships, while women form few and deep relationships, which does not help them to network widely. This stymies their professional opportunities. Women therefore find that the workplace is not harmonious and get disillusioned with the profession.

Timberlake's findings show that women continue to lag behind men in career advancement and in levels of compensation and achieved status. This is because of their inability to access social capital, a valuable organisational commodity and source of knowledge, resources and networks that are essential for career development and maturation.

The research also indicated that untold benefits and rewards may be generated when workplaces are democratised and equalised so that women - and men - may contribute equally to the growth and development of organisations.

Public service success Verona Burgess has investigated the position of women in the Federal public service (AFR Boss, October 2006). She found that one-third of the 18 most senior public service servants are women, a proportion women in the private sector can only dream about.

The credit was given to Dr Peter Shergold who, as Secretary to the Prime Minister's Dept., advised John Howard on this. Shergold says he chose the best-qualified candidates for the role, not because they were women; merit selection was stringently applied.

This shift took place over a period of almost two decades of cultural and professional change and a radical overhaul of the public service system. Joanna Hewitt, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, says public service is driven by public policy not money.

This is a great incentive to women who are less likely to chase large salaries than men. There is a strong anti-discriminatory policy in the public service to be treated fairly and equally. The competitive selection process is by panel.

With salaries limited, certified agreements contain cutting edge advantages: flexible hours, part-time permanency, time in lieu, paid maternity leave, the ability to buy extra leave and some on-site child-care centres.

Stakeholder participation: All stakeholders have responsibility to ensure gender equity in our workplaces.

Employers are responsible for equity, diversity, work/life balance including return to work, performance management, recruitment and promotion policies as well as creating the culture for these to be applied equitably. Some companies that have shown outstanding corporate citizenship in this respect are IBM, Westpac, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Honeywell.

Managers are responsible for ensuring equal participation, implementing the organisational policies, creating a flexible workplace and engendering an equitable social construct for their teams.

Team members are responsible for participating and encouraging equal participation in both social and business contexts within their teams.

Governments, both state and federal, need to address legislation, funding, initiatives, research, education etc aimed at encouraging the entry, retention and development of women in our profession.

Schools and universities need to pursue interesting and engaging curriculums, continue to fight for IT infrastructure resources, provide ICT extra-curricular clubs and demand qualified and passionate ICT teachers.

Women should not see themselves as victims but contribute to changing the culture through professional development in asserting their rights and using their natural collaborative and communication skills in changing the organisational culture to be more inclusive. Membership and active participation of professional bodies and networking groups demonstrates that these women are serious about their careers.

Professional bodies such as the ACS and AIIA have a duty to develop policies and lobby governments and business to support equitable structures, provide professional development and mentoring opportunities and provide advocacy services toward these objectives. They also need to influence and encourage all relevant stakeholders about the need to update educational requirements that support the entry of women into the profession in schools and universities.

Anita Prabhu is director, ACS-Women board, a member of the NSW Branch Executive Committee, and convenor of the Project Management SIG.

[sidebar]

Can we negotiate?

"We need some negotiation skills!" has become a common request by women in ICT.

By Susan Bandias

In a rapidly changing industrial relations climate where the old assurances of security, collective bargaining and predictable income have been replaced by individual contracts, Australian Workplace Agreements and negotiated benefits, women are rapidly recognising the need to develop the skills necessary to negotiate their worth in their workplace.

For many women working in the ICT industry this can be a daunting task.

The ICT industry is one of the most male-dominated sectors of Australia's labour force. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2005 - 2006 approximately 85 per cent of the ICT industry's 348,200 workers were male and only 15 per cent or 53,300 were female.

This disproportionate ratio of male to female ICT workers has been consistent over time and, as the ABS statistics indicate, women represented approximately only 16 per cent of the workforce even in the heady days of the late 1990s ICT boom.

The workforce in ICT workforce is also relatively young: approximately 63. 7 per cent of all ICT workers are aged between the 25 and 44 and 20 per cent are between 45 and 54. Only five per cent are over the age of 55.

It is acknowledged that both full-time and part-time ICT employees work more hours per week than the national average of all employed people.

Consequently, females who work in the ICT industry are in the minority, they are young, they work on average more hours per week than the national average and they are under-represented in the employment relationship.

The career path for women is often punctuated, discontinuous and fraught with competing priorities. Childbirth, family responsibilities and the lack of career priority often afforded to second income earners are not unique to women working in the ICT industry; these factors impact on the working life and career path of women in every industry.

However, as one research report from the University of Salford, UK, says: "This problematic of combining home/caring and work responsibilities is exacerbated by the need for ICT professionals to keep up with the rapid rate of change in the industry, making even relatively short career breaks risky.

Negotiating flexible working arrangements, achieving a satisfactory work-life-balance and having a realistic appreciation of the worth of their labour can, for women in the ICT sector, be an intimidating task.

A Salford survey of women working in the ICT sector in the UK asked what characteristics and skills they would need in order to progress in the industry. Responses included "...persistence, up-to-date knowledge, technical bravado, enthusiasm, confidence and self belief and lastly a good brain and the ability to mix with even the strangest people".

Australian women would argue that negotiation skills should be included on the list.

Recent changes to Australia's industrial relations legislation have left many women in the ICT sector feeling vulnerable. A significant proportion of the women who work in ICT have not had the advantage of experience, nor the opportunity to acquire the knowledge or the skills to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment.

However, while the old assurances of the employment relationship may have gone, women in the ICT industry are now starting to identify their employment needs and determine ways of achieving them.

In the new era of industrial relations the acquisition of the "soft skills" that encompass areas such as negotiation, arbitration and bargaining may just be the key to achieving a satisfactory career.

Susan Bandias has been an active member on the Northern Territory (NT) Branch Executive for the past 10 years and is the NT representative on the National ACS W Board and a member of the Communications Technologies Board. She has represented the NT Professional Development Board.

She is a lecturer in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations at Charles Darwin University and is currently undertaking a PhD on the role of telecommunications in the sustainable development of rural and remote communities in the NT.