Working to get more European women into digital and ICT careers - Main contents
Today is International Girls in ICT Day. It is being celebrated around the world with thousands of different events to raise awareness about empowering and encouraging girls and young women to consider studies and careers in Information and Communication Technologies.
With the world of technology evolving and advancing at great speed, the ICT sector continues to be a buoyant, growing sector for employment and for economic development.
But does that translate into equivalent growth in jobs for women, in what is still a male-dominated area?
In Europe, although it would be a mistake to say there are no women in tech, they do - unfortunately - remain a minority. We are a long way from having a 50/50 gender balance to recruit from.
The bottom line is that in Europe we still have the situation where less than a third of the ICT workforce is female.
We should change this: ICT is the future. Women need to be a larger part of it.
The first issue is that many girls do not choose studies related to ICT.
The second is that they choose ICT careers far less.
Only a fraction of female tech graduates go on to work in this dynamic sector.
The natural consequence is that women remain under-represented among tech entrepreneurs in management and decision-making positions.
While this is a general problem, the percentage of female bosses in ICT is much smaller than in other sectors: 19% of ICT sector workers have female bosses, compared with 45% of non-ICT sector workers.
But then it gets worse, because many more women than men leave the tech industry after working in it.
It is a huge waste of female potential and a huge loss for the technology sector.
On the positive side, however, many people are already aware of these problems and are working hard to change the situation. It is why events like International Girls in ICT Day are so important.
This is an opportunity for girls and young women to get an insight into ICT and to consider careers through open days at ICT institutions, meeting women role models, and getting some practical experience in workshops.
It fits in well with campaigns and initiatives organised by the European Commission - like the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs and EU Code Week, among others - to encourage young people, and particularly women, to take up ICT-related careers.
Teaching young people how to code, for example, is an excellent way of getting them interested in tech as a career. It is for girls and boys equally, both inside and outside schools - and for adults too, of course.
Or take the European Network of Women Web Entrepreneurs Hubs. This supports the creation and scaling of web startups created by women so that Europe develops a dynamic environment for women web entrepreneurs.
All of these initiatives are part of building a renewed image of the ICT sector among girls and women, to help inspire them to see technology in a different way.
We can also do this by tackling stereotypes, particularly at an early stage in education, by using the visibility of key women in computing and technology to demonstrate that they are not exclusively male domains.
Attracting more women into science and technology careers matters for our economy too.
We know that Europe faces a significant ICT skills gap, despite high unemployment - especially among young people. By 2020, it is estimated that there will be a shortage of more than 800,000 skilled ICT workers.
If we are not filling these jobs, then we are losing them - and damaging Europe's competitiveness at the same time. Getting more women to take up ICT careers is a self-evident solution.
It should also make financial sense for them to do so.
Women working in ICT earn almost 9% more than women in similar positions in the non-ICT service sectors.
We should properly recognise top European girls and women who work in computing and in all areas of technology. Europe needs them to play a larger role in these vibrant sectors and keep them competitive.
Another blog soon.
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