IT業的女性都哪兒去了？

IT業的女性都哪兒去了？

作者：英國《金融時報》金•托馬斯(Kim Thomas)

2006年11月16日 星期四

職場女性如今仍會遭遇大量的“玻璃天花闆”(glass ceiling)，不過人們似乎有理由期盼，敢做敢為的科技界會在多元化方面做出表率。

然而，人們并沒有看到新一代女性在IT行業揚名。實際上，情況恰恰相反。

IT行業女性雇員的比例多年來一直在下降。英國IT行業協會Intellect的一份報告稱，目前，英國IT行業女性雇員的比例為16%，大大低于1997年的27%。

首席資訊官僅8%是女性

這16%的女性雇員，往往集中在IT行業較低端的工作崗位上：她們中約有61%從事低工資、低技能的工作。職位越高，女性雇員就越少：招聘公司Harvey Nash最近進行的一項調查顯示，僅有8%的首席資訊官(CIO)是女性。

這是西方的典型現象。在這些國家，IT業女性雇員的比例一直呈下降趨勢。美國的情況也是如此，目前該國女性IT雇員比例約為27%；而在挪威和德國等歐洲國家，這一數字還不到20%。

在新興經濟體中，IT業工作被視為一種機遇，是以，那裡的情況有所不同：例如在馬來西亞，計算機系50%的學生是女性。

印度生機勃勃的IT業在世界舞台上扮演着日趨重要的角色，而這個國家逾三分之一的電腦程式員是女性。

西方國家面臨的問題，不僅僅是少有女性進入該行業，那些進入該行業的女性也留不下來。

英國貿工部(Department of Trade and Industry)在2005年委托出爐了一份名為《IT業女性：多元化的商業理由》(Women in the IT Industry: Towards a business case for diversity)的報告。報告稱：“女性往往在生育之後就離開了該行業，但在她們職業生涯中後期（一般在40歲至50歲之間）也往往離職。在這個年齡段，她們已是經驗豐富、技能熟練的員工——這意味着找人替換她們的難度較大，成本也較高。”

女孩子對IT業敬而遠之

然而，盡管西方國家采取了多項措施，女性IT雇員人數仍然繼續下降。目前，從全球範圍看，女生在學校考試中的成績通常優于男生，年輕女性傾向于選擇法律、醫學和會計等職業，對IT業卻敬而遠之。

這有什麼關系嗎？如果女性希望成為醫生或教師，而男性希望從事IT業工作，為什麼不随他們/她們去呢，而非要擔心“多元化”問題呢？

Intellect的項目經理卡麗•哈特奈爾(Carrie Hartnell)稱，這個問題關系重大：“這不再是性别鴻溝問題，它關乎西方經濟體如何保持競争力”。她指出，從經濟層面上講，IT行業作為最重要的行業之一，沒有道理去削減它的可用人才庫。

那麼，為什麼西方國家的女性對IT業失去興趣了呢？她們又是在生命中哪些階段産生這種想法的呢？

女性傾向于遠離IT業的第一個年齡段，或許也是最關鍵的年齡段，是10歲至14歲。在這個年齡段之前，女孩對擺弄電腦的興趣與男孩一樣高。

然而，e-skills UK委托撰寫的一份報告稱，女孩長到14歲的時候，資訊技術的“奇客”(geek)形象開始令她們生厭。迹象也顯示，男孩往往在IT課上将裝置據為己有，這也可能吓到女孩。e-skills UK是一個由雇主上司、經英國政府授權的團體，旨在提高IT行業技能水準。

此外，女性還存在對IT職業生涯的誤解。南安普頓大學電子與計算機科學系(School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University)主任、英國計算機協會(British Computer Society)前會長溫迪•霍爾(Wendy Hall)稱，英國計算機協會就14歲至16歲女孩對IT行業的态度進行了調查，其中一些發現令人驚訝。

“進了IT業隻是做秘書”

她解釋道：“我們本以為她們會說‘因為這個行業太另類，是以不喜歡'，但實際上她們的回答是‘我不打算從事IT工作，因為進了這一行隻是做個秘書'。”

霍爾教授表示，學校必須承擔部分責任。她認為，資訊技術課程現在講授的全都是電子資料表和文字處理，而非創造性地使用電腦。e-skills UK項目經理安妮•坎特羅(Anne Cantelo)也認同這種觀點。她表示，許多教師未能明确區分專業技能與使用者技能。

為了解決這個問題，e-skills UK在2005年成立了“女孩電腦俱樂部”(Computer Clubs for Girls，簡稱CC4G)。這種俱樂部在課餘時間活動，隻許女孩子參加，讓她們能夠通過自己喜歡的活動——設計雜志封面、成立音樂商店或策劃慈善活動，學習Excel或HTML這樣的電腦技能。

“女孩電腦俱樂部”的項目主管梅洛迪•赫爾曼(Melody Herman)表示，俱樂部的成功超出了預期：現在全英格蘭有3000多家這種俱樂部，5.8萬名成員。參加俱樂部的女孩子中，約有65%表示自己“更可能”考慮從事IT工作了，比正常情況高出很多。

不過，即使在離開學校後，還有其它因素阻礙年輕女性從事IT工作。《IT Week》雜志和招聘機構Computer People最近聯合組織了一個“IT女性圓桌會議”，在會上，許多女性都談到IT業的長時間工作文化以及工作時間缺少靈活性。

從“太年輕”到“太老”

女性經常在生育孩子之後離開IT行業——那些重新回到這個行業的人經常發現，很難重新獲得原來的職位。有一種普遍的（也許有失偏頗）看法，認為IT業發展太快，女性離開1年就跟不上它的發展了。克蘭菲爾德大學(Cranfield University)企業多樣化管理進階講師瓦爾•辛格(Val Singh)指出：“在與女性閑談當中，可以聽到一種觀點：剛開始的時候，她們太年輕，然後突然之間她們又太老了。”

對于那些堅持下來的人而言，可能也很艱難。Sun電子計算機公司英國分公司(Sun UK)現任董事總經理特魯迪•諾利斯-格雷(Trudy Norris-Grey)說，當她的孩子還很小的時候，她都在早上6點上班，這樣就可以在下午5點之前下班，回家陪孩子，直到他們睡覺。而到了晚上8點，她又得開始工作。

IT業也有自己的“玻璃天花闆”。霍爾教授在20多歲的時候首次遭遇歧視。當時，她曾申請一個教學職位，負責給工程類學生講課。但她的申請被一個全部由男性組成的面試小組拒絕了，因為他們覺得，霍爾将無法控制全是男生的課堂。

厭倦IT業的工作強度

對于女性往往在四、五十歲時離開IT業，霍爾教授并不驚訝：“很多女性退出，不是因為她們無法勝任工作，而是因為厭倦了被迫以高得離譜的效率完成工作，而且，她們覺得，除了一直工作之外，生活還有更多内容。這種地方的文化是以男人為導向的，女人一直扭曲着自己的性情。”

但很多科技公司都已醒悟到，它們需要招聘和留住女性。

一些公司正在針對大學畢業生采取行動，比如，惠普(HP)就在德國富特旺根大學(University of Furtwangen)贊助了一項專門針對女性的計算機科學課程。

埃森哲(Accenture)則開始招聘不同背景的畢業生，而不隻是在技術類學生中挑選。這使得該公司目前新招的畢業生約有三分之一是女性。

一些大公司，比如惠普、埃森哲、英國電信(BT)、IBM和Sun等，還以彈性工作政策來吸引并留住女員工。

在IBM，有20%的女職員享有彈性工作時間，而且公司還為她們制定了一系列的規劃和安排。根據其中一項“夥伴”計劃，休完産假複職的女員工，将與另一位快要休産假的女員工搭檔，以幫助她與公司發展保持同步。此外，IBM還設有“女性技術社群”(Women In Technology)，女性員工在其中可以互相提供支援。

在Sun電子計算機公司，40%的董事會成員是女性。諾利斯-格雷女士稱，這不僅本身是件好事，也為其他女性提供了榜樣和激勵。

除了獲得更廣泛的人才來源之外，擁有更多女性員工還有哪些好處呢？

女人往往更善于溝通

很多參加《IT Week》圓桌會議的女性都相信，她們能更好地與客戶建立協作關系。她們認為，女人往往比男人更善于溝通和傾聽。

索尼歐洲公司(Sony Europe)副總裁納奧米•克萊默(Naomi Climer)也同意這一觀點：“工程行業到處都是難以捉摸的男人，故意說着讓人難了解的話。我認為，不管你是在談IT，還是談工程，用大家都明白的話表達出來，才是真正了解的标志。”

盡管采取了所有這些措施，但還有一個問題：一個持續了近30年的趨勢，能被扭轉嗎？

在将女性融入職場方面，雖然個别公司做得不錯，但很多公司仍然保持着長期流行的企業文化——超長工作時間和死闆的工作方式。

譯者/何黎 

WHERE ARE ALL THE WOMEN IN IT?

By Kim Thomas

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Women in the workplace still encounter plenty of glass ceilings, but it would be good to think that the go-ahead world of technology is leading the way in diversity.

But rather than seeing a new breed of women making their mark in the IT industry, in fact the reverse is true.

The proportion of female IT employees has been dropping for years. Today, according to a report by Intellect, a UK IT industry trade association, it stands at 16 per cent in the UK, down from 27 per cent in 1997.

And that 16 per cent tends to be concentrated in the lower levels of the profession: about 61 per cent are in low-paid, low-skill jobs. The higher you go, the fewer there are: only 8 per cent of CIOs are women, according to a recent survey from recruitment firm Harvey Nash.

This is typical of western economies, where the trend is unremittingly downwards. In the US, the proportion of female IT professionals is falling and now stands at about 27 per cent, while in European countries such as Norway and Germany, the figure is below 20 per cent.

In emerging economies, where a job in IT is seen as an opportunity, it is a different picture: in Malaysia, for example, 50 per cent of computing students are female.

And in India, an increasingly important player on the global stage with a thriving IT sector, more than a third of computer programmers are women.

The problem the west faces is not just that women are not joining the industry, but that those who do join, do not stay.

“Women tend to leave the sector following the birth of children, but also later in their careers, typically between the ages of 40 and 50, when they are experienced, skilled members of staff – difficult and expensive to replace,” said a 2005 report, Women in the IT Industry: Towards a business case for diversity, commissioned by the UK Department of Trade and Industry.

Yet despite numerous intiatives, the numbers continue to fall. With girls now frequently outperforming boys in school examinations around the world, young women are choosing professions such as law, medicine and accountancy. But they are staying away from IT.

Does it matter? If women want to become doctors or teachers and men want to work in IT, why not let them, instead of worrying about “diversity”?

Carrie Hartnell, programme manager at Intellect, says it matters a great deal: “This is no longer about a gender divide, this is about how economies remain competitive,” she says, pointing out that reducing the pool of talent available in one of the most important industries makes little economic sense.

So why do females in the west lose interest in IT and at what stages in their lives?

The first, and perhaps most crucial stage at which girls tend to drop out of IT is between the ages of 10 and 14. Before then, girls enjoy working with computers just as much as boys do.

However, by the time they are 14, girls have been turned off technology by its “geeky” image, according to research commissioned by e-skills UK, an employer-led body licensed by government improve IT skills. Anecdotal evidence suggests, too, that girls can be intimidated by boys' tendency to hog the equipment in IT lessons.

The problem is compounded by misconceptions about what a career in IT might look like. Wendy Hall, head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University, and a former president of the British Computer Society, says that research from BCS among 14-16-year-old girls about their attitude to computing turned up some surprising results.

She explained: “We expected them to say they didn't like it because it was geeky, but they actually said ‘I don't want a career in IT because it's just being a secretary'.”

Schools must shoulder part of the blame, says Prof Hall: IT lessons, she argues, have become about spreadsheets and word processing rather than about using computers creatively. Anne Cantelo, a project director at e-skills UK, agrees, and says that many teachers fail to make a clear distinction between professional skills and user skills.

In an attempt to address the problem, in 2005 e-skills UK founded Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G), single-sex clubs run out of school hours, to enable girls to learn computing skills such as Excel or HTML through activities that appealed to them – designing magazine covers, setting up a music business or devising a charitable campaign.

The success of the clubs has exceeded expectations: there are now more than 3,000 across England with 58,000 members. Of the girls who have attended the clubs, about 65 per cent say they would be “more likely” to consider a career in IT, much higher than the norm, says Melody Herman, CC4G's project director.

But even after school there are other factors that put young women off a career in IT. At a recent Women in IT roundtable organised by IT Week and recruitment body Computer People, many women spoke of the long hours culture and lack of flexible working in IT.

Women often leave IT careers after having children – with those who return often finding it difficult to regain their place on the ladder. There is a widespread – and possibly misplaced – belief that IT moves so fast that women who take a year out cannot catch up again: “In talking to women anecdotally there's a view that at first they're too young and then suddenly they're too old,” says Val Singh, reader in corporate diversity management at Cranfield University.

For those who stick it out, it can be tough: Trudy Norris-Grey, now managing director of Sun UK, reports that when her children were young, she would get into work at 6am so she could leave before 5pm and spend time with her children before their bedtime. At 8pm, she would start working again.

And then there is IT's own glass ceiling. Prof Hall first experienced discrimination in her 20s when she applied for a post teaching engineering students and was turned down by an all-male panel because they thought she would be unable to control classes of male students.

She is not surprised that women tend to leave IT in their 40s or 50s: “A lot of women drop out, not because they're not capable of doing it, but because they get fed up with having to perform at this incredible rate, and you think there's more to life than having to act like this all the time. The establishment is a male-oriented culture – you're always acting against your natural type.”

A number of technology companies, however, have woken up to the need to recruit and retain women.

Some companies are making a point of targeting graduates: Hewlett-Packard, for example, sponsors a computer science course at the University of Furtwangen in Germany aimed specifically at women.

At Accenture, recruiting graduates from a variety of backgrounds, not just technology, means that about a third of its graduate intake is now female.

Some large companies – HP, Accenture, BT, IBM and Sun, for example – have also introduced flexible working policies to attract and retain women.

At IBM, 20 per cent of female employees work flexible hours, and the company has a wide range of schemes and initiatives. These include a buddy scheme, in which a woman who has recently returned to work after maternity leave, pairs up with a woman about to go on maternity leave, and helps keep her in touch with what's happening. It also has Women In Technology chapters – groups where women can support each other.

At Sun, 40 per cent of board members are women – a good thing in itself, says Ms Norris-Grey, but also a way of providing role models and inspiration for other women.

Apart from being able to draw from a wider pool of talent, what are the benefits of having more women in the workplace?

Many of the women at the IT Week round table believed they were better able to build collaborative relationships with customers. Women, they argued, are often better at communicating and listening than men.

Naomi Climer, vice-president Sony Europe, agrees: “Engineering is full of blokes being very mysterious and using language that is deliberately obfuscating. I think whether you're talking about IT or engineering, a sign of understanding it really well is being able to put it into terms that are meaningful to just about anybody.”

Despite all the initiatives, the question remains whether a trend that has been going in one direction for nearly three decades can be reversed.

While individual companies are doing well at bringing women into the profession, many persist with the long hours culture and inflexible working practices that have prevailed for years.