Percentage of Female I.T. Pros Falling: Study

Whatever happened to Webgirls?

Sure, there are more highly trained women in the high-tech sector these days, but many are also losing interest in IT, says Canada 's association of Information Technology professionals.

An informal survey of 10 Canadian universities taken by CIPS shows that the number of women IT graduates has increased steadily since 2000, but so has the number of those who are dropping out of computer science courses.

Less than 25% are women

Women make up less than a quarter of the Canadian IT work force, says CIPS' fifth annual ‘Women in IT: Looking Toward the Future' program, down from just more than a quarter in 2000.

The Women in IT program is designed by the association to encourage high school girls to pursue IT careers. The program offers students a mentoring program with women IT professionals.

" Enrolments in computing-related courses continue to decline in part because students, parents and school counsellors continue to hear discouraging reports about the state of the IT sector in Canada ," Software Human Resource Council Chairwoman Faye West said in a statement.

" In fact, technology is one of the faster growing sectors of the economy with an unemployment rate of around 3 per cent ," she added.

The Software Human Resource Council said it found that in March, 2000, the total Canadian IT work force was 480,758, of whom 122,130 were women (25.4%). In November, 2004, the total IT work force was 572,547, of whom 130,593 were women (22.8%) – a substantial drop of almost 3% in just three and a half years.

Why now?

Women have the most to gain from this shift in career interest. Not only will female grads be in demand by an increasingly technical society, but they will be courted by a corporate world interested in their non-technical qualities.

Jeanette Collins , HR Manager for a large Toronto IT firm, emphasizes the importance of women in the IT workplace. “ The importance of promoting women in the workplace and equal opportunity hiring practices are a given. What many HR professionals realize now is that women in general actually bring other traits to the table which men may not, and these characteristics work towards things such as cooperation, productivity, and morale. These intangibles are gender-driven characteristics that can positively change the dynamic in a group setting” .

Donny Deutsch , author, CNBC personality, and chairman and CEO of prominent ad agency Deutsch Inc. totally agrees. " Of the top ten executives at Deutsch, eight are women…when I was hiring, I wasn't worried about man or woman, I was trying to find the best people—and the best people kept turning out to be women .” Although he evaluates potential new hires with an open mind, Donny insists that women usually come out on top. “ Women already possess a lot of the traits that can make someone successful in my business. They are creative, imaginative, and sensitive – those are some key elements that make a good ad person ”.

Level-headed, sensible, fair, diplomatic, and mature are other descriptors managers use to describe the innate qualities that give women the edge over men in certain settings. Whatever the reason, just know that female IT grads may have a distinct advantage over their male counterparts in the near future, if not already, based on simple supply and demand. If you are of the fairer sex, IT-minded, and considering YOUR career path, be sure to visit UC411's Computer and Information Sciences or IT Certifications areas for a complete listing of your education options in Canada . Until then, ‘Vive le Difference!'