Women in the IT workplace: learnings for managers

This paper discusses the experiences of women working in the Australian IT workforce. With increasing demand for information technology professionals, organisations need to both attract the best qualified people as well as keep those they already have. In western developed countries in recent years we have seen a decline in women's participation in the IT workforce. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that most IT workplaces are male dominated which many women find less comfortable than more gender balanced workplaces. Based on survey responses and interviews with Australian women working in IT, our research explored women's lived experiences. We found that women continue to find the environment of their workplaces challenging yet report that they enjoy working as IT professionals. Further we identified what would make a difference to women's working lives to ensure they stay and advance in the IT profession. If we are to keep women in the IT workforce we need to be aware of the challenges women face and begin to address these challenges by providing mechanisms to better support women.