The lack of Females in Computer related Careers
Information Technology (IT) is a rapidly expanding and demanded industry in today's society. However, while women do well in IT, their involvement is lacking when compared to the dominant percentage of male employees. Unquestionably, IT professionals must encourage more women and girls to study computing and become the high-tech professionals for which there's so strong a demand.
Women, who comprise 51 percent of the population and earn more than half of all bachelor-level degrees awarded, earn about one-quarter of the bachelor-level computer and information sciences degrees awarded by U. S. academic institutions. This has dropped steadily in the United States from 35.8% in 1984, to only 27.5% in 1994. However, this is not due to lack of ability. In 2001 3.8 % of girls received VHA and 6.51 % HA. Yet in the same year only 23.39 % of Yr 12 students doing Information Processing Technology were female.
Yamato IBM research centre
Career Day
English: Excelerated Performance, LLC.This raises the question: 'Why aren't girls participating in IT and how can we remedy this?'
Though a career in IT is an interesting and profitable prospect, it is not portrayed as being glamorous. In a survey conducted in 1997 it was found that the majority of 17-year-old's thought of IPT professionals as people who "Sit and scratch themselves" and whose job entails "drinking coffee and playing Doom and Quake". When asked to draw a representation of an IPT consultant most responses portrayed a profession that is populated with "geeky-nerdy" individuals, who wear bow ties, glasses, pocket protectors, "too short" pants, and lab coats. They are typically bald males who are passive geniuses who work alone on their computers. This is the main cause for the lack of Women in IT. When choosing careers, the image-conscious female population opts for a more stylish career...