Women Perceive New Economy Much Like Old, Survey Finds

Public and private efforts to attract more women into high-tech fields of information technology have a significant hurdle to overcome: 60 percent of women already in IT jobs wouldn’t choose the same career path if starting over, according to Women In Technology, a recent survey by DeLoitte & Touche. Many of the reasons women cited for the dissatisfaction – pay equity, glass ceiling for promotions, and few role models – are already long-standing and too-common issues for women in more traditional industries. Findings include:



Is there a glass ceiling in the high tech industry?

Nearly two-thirds of women surveyed believe a glass ceiling is a reality for women in the high technology industry (62 percent), whereas 62 percent of men felt that this barrier is a non-issue for women in the high tech industry. High tech is defined as computer hardware or software, telecommunications, dot-coms, or e-commerce departments.



What perceived barriers to advancement exist for women and why?

Those who perceive a glass ceiling exists cited the following reasons: women are perceived as less knowledgeable and/or qualified than their male counterparts, gender bias, sex discrimination, stereotypes, and a lack of women technology leaders (84 percent of women and 57 percent of men said there were too few women high tech leaders).



What does it take to succeed in the high tech arena?

Women are more likely to link female success to skill, accessibility to female mentors, and education, while men are more likely to attribute women's success to the prosperous economy of the past 10 years. Perceptions could be half of the battle: half of the women surveyed agreed “that once they put their minds to it, women have an equal chance of advancing to leadership positions.”



Progress toward leadership positions for women has been made, though, since a majority of survey respondents perceived women holding many or “a fair amount” of the management or supervisory positions at their place of employment. Nevertheless, only one out of ten high-tech respondents stated that a female was the owner or CEO of their company.



Seven out of ten of all respondents believed there are not enough female leaders in the IT industry. These respondents cited these future challenges, some of which can be addressed by state and local tech-based economic development practitioners:

• lack of appropriate technology education for women
• societal encouragement to pursue other career choices
• lack of interest in technology by women
• intimidation by men in the industry 
• gender bias stereotypes perpetuated by men and women such as men being more comfortable with technology and better qualified to work in the high-tech industry.

The report is based on a survey of 1,500 America Online users who were employed full-time and had Internet access at work. Two-thirds of respondents were women.



For more information on the survey, see What’s New at: http://www.roper.com