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Thursday 9th February 2012

Below is the latest research relating to women in IT. Click on the titles to download the full reports.
 
Women and men in science, engineering and technology: the UK statistics guide 2010
Author: The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering & Technology
Date: October 2010
Science, engineering and technology are central to our lives, our economy and our future. But at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the analysis in this Guide reveals that only 5.3 per cent (674,000 women), or about one in twenty, of all working women are employed in any SET occupation, compared to 31.3 per cent for all working men (nearly one in three), in a total of 5.5 million women and men in SET occupations. This means that a man is six times more likely to work in a SET occupation than a woman. Women make up only 12.3 per cent of all people working in all SET occupations. This is despite the fact that women account for 45.1 per cent of the whole workforce, with 12.7 million women at work in the UK. To achieve parity nearly four times as many women would need to take up work in a SET occupation.

The guide shows how the number of girls and women studying STEM has improved. However STEM graduates do not always work in SET occupations. Female STEM graduates of working age in the UK (a total of 620,000 women) are more likely to take up employment in non-SET than in SET occupations. Only 29.8 per cent (185,000) of all female STEM graduates of working age in the UK are employed in SET occupations compared to half (782,000) of all male STEM graduates of working age.
 
Skills and Trends Report
Author: gender-IT
Date: July 2010
The gender-IT project has published this report on current trends in ICT training and the impact this has on the skills needed by educators and trainers in the ICT sector. The main question behind the report is how to encourage more girls and women to be involved in the ICT sector - current policies and projects across Europe are explored, successful measures are identified and a set of recommendations for policy makers are presented. The report uses research from previous activities undertaken by the gender-IT project including focus groups with learners and stakeholders in four EU member states, peer review visits to training institutions and a database of European policies and networks aimed at encouraging gender mainstreaming. The report also identifies several key areas for policy-makers to be aware of when encouraging gender mainstreaming measures in ICT education and training.

 
Women Mean Business: Why Gender Equality is Essential in Science, Engineering and Technology
Author: The UKRC
Date: July 2010
The UKRC's report 'Women Mean Business' sets out seven key reasons why women are essential in science, engineering and technology:
  • it enables businesses to stand out as employers of choice
  • gender equality helps improve business performance
  • organisations are more likely to retain knowledge and experience
  • they are able to capitalise on changes in workforce demographics
  • it helps solve the serious shortage of skills in many areas of SET
  • it helps organisations meet public sector procurement standards and means they better reflect and represent their customer base and wider society
  • it enables them to comply with current and emerging equalities legislation

It lists some of the steps you can take to create a work environment which is diverse, skilled and committed – and includes a fair representation of women. It draws upon extensive research and best practice to help you develop and communicate the business case for gender equality in your own organisation.
 

Addressing Core Equity Issues in K-12 Computer Science Education: Identifying Barriers and Sharing Strategies
Author: The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and the Computer Science Teachers Association
Date: March 2010

This is an interesting and insightful report from the US looking into factors affecting computer science education in primary and secondary level schools. Women continue to remain critically absent from computing and while many efforts exist to reverse the trend, too few focus on the place where a majority of children in the United States are educated — the formal K-12 (kindergarten to twelfth grade) secondary and post-secondary educational system. The pattern of  underrepresentation begins at the K-12 level but K-12 computer science teachers often suffer from isolation, a lack of resources, no consistent certification requirements and a lack of access to the significant cross-sector partnerships that would increase their capacity. In order to address these needs, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) and the University of Arizona (UA) joined forces in 2009 to design and implement a meeting and workshop for computer science teachers. The response to the workshop proved extraordinary: the conference organisers received a total of 650 applications from teachers who wished to participate. Funding from the National Science Foundation, Google, IBM, and the Motorola Foundation enabled 97 participants to receive full scholarships to attend the workshop. This report details the discussions, outcomes and recommendations from that meeting.


 
 
The Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Technical Women
Author: The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Date: March 2010
On 1st October 2009, 59 senior technology executives participated in the Anita Borg Institute’s 2009 Technical executive forum, held at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This initiative brings together thought leaders to raise awareness, actively engage discussion and drive action among R&d executives on issues regarding the recruitment, retention and advancement of technical women.

The discussion at the Forum focused on three components: 1) a review of issues pertaining to the culture of technology organisations that prevent the recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women;  2) presentation of solutions that have effectively addressed these cultural challenges within organisations that can be  replicated; 3) breakout sessions focused on specific ideas and actions.

Cultural elements that prevent the creation of inclusive environments for maximum human capital engagement
Even though an acknowledgement was made that the pipeline of technical women with technical degrees coming out of academia was insufficient, the group commented that the women who do graduate from these programs are not joining organisational cultures that are as receptive as they could be to gender diversity. This cultural disconnect was highlighted through the discussion of five main components.

 
Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success
Author: The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Date: March 2010
A growing body of research has documented the underrepresentation of women in technical positions in US companies. Women hold 24 percent of technology jobs, yet represent half the total workforce. This underrepresentation persists even though the demand for technical talent remains high: computer occupations are expected to grow by 32 percent between 2008 and 2018. Companies are increasingly aware of the benefits of diversity for innovation, and are looking for solutions to recruit, retain, and advance women. A combination of factors helps to explain the dearth of women in technical positions:
• A shortage of women graduating with degrees in technical fields. Women earned 18.6 percent of Computer Science bachelor’s degrees in the US in 2007, and 18.5 percent of engineering degrees. For computer science, this represents a sharp decline from the 37 percent of women graduating with a bach-elor’s degree in 1985.
• For women who do enter technical careers in industry, persistent barriers to retention and advancement have been documented, including: isolation and lack of access to influential social networks and mentors; unwelcoming cultures; work-family conflict and family configurations that differ from male colleagues; organizational cultures that do not reward mentoring and employee development; and hidden bias and stereotyping that become embedded in organizational processes.

 
Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity
Author: The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the GSMA Development Fund
Date: March 2010
The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the GSMA Development Fund are pleased to announce the publication of Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity, following it’s launch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report is the first detailed study of its kind on the mobile phone gender gap in low and middle-income countries and showcases how using a mobile phone can improve the socio-economic status of women. We hope to use the report to launch a larger initiative to increase women’s access to the mobile market.
 
 
Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering
Author: AAUW
Date: February 2010
AAUW is proud to have been selected by the National Science Foundation to conduct this study of women’s underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Since 1881, AAUW has encouraged women to study and work in these areas through fellow-ships and grants, research, programming, and advocacy. From local science camps and confer-ences to our groundbreaking research reports, AAUW has a long history of breaking through barriers for women and girls.  Women have made tremendous progress in education and the workplace during the past 50 years. Even in historically male fields such as business, law, and medicine, women have made impressive gains. In scientific areas, however, women’s educational gains have been less dra-matic, and their progress in the workplace still slower. In an era when women are increasingly prominent in medicine, law, and business, why are so few women becoming scientists and engineers?
 

UK Women: Trends in Device Use and Online Behavior
Author: Karin von Abrams, eMarketer
Date: January 2010
The widespread use of digital technologies is changing profoundly the lives of girls and women in the UK, but it is not—at least not yet—changing their fundamental concerns and motivations.

Communication and utility are top priorities for women, who use digital devices to stay in touch with friends and family as well as save time and help get their families organized.

“Women are much less likely than men to seek out entertainment or simply pass the time on the Internet or mobile phones,” said Karin von Abrams, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “UK Women: Trends in Device Use and Online Behavior.” “When they do go online to relax and unwind, this too has a social context. Women typically share content and experiences with selected friends or other people they know.”

If you would like further information about this report, please contact Karin von Abrams, Senior Analyst at eMarketer Inc.
www.emarketer.com
07905 220 661
kvonabrams@emarketer.com
twitter.com/eMarketer