IT workers are used to it: the techy offices are dominated by males. Women working in IT are a rare bird. Nothing new there. But why is that? In school tests, girls and boys have shown equivalent scores in math, science, and computing. Much techy work is online, and online jobs are very popular with women, especially mothers, who have historically enjoyed working from home. So why the paucity of female workers?
No one exactly knows how it got that way, but the fact of the matter is that the problem is getting worse, not better. The percentage of women in the IT world hit a high of 41% in 2004 and has been declining drastically ever since. Experts cite the fact that one out of every three women working in IT typically works in an administrative capacity, and those are the positions in greatest decline. Though it is less remarked upon, it is also true that minorities are also underrepresented in the global IT work force.
Many experts in international business claim that this lack of diversity in the IT sector is handicapping America, as this country feels the discrepancy more than others. China, India, and Europe all have more diverse tech departments in leading companies and are sometimes seen as more progressive, more flexible in the international marketplace. Anyone who wants to get into the scuffle (and probably come out of it with a few bruises) can certainly pick up the argument that there is some kind of innate difference between the sexes that explains the lack of women in science and math careers such as computing. Harvard University President Lawrence Summers himself suggested this and plenty of controversy ensued from it.
The fact of the matter is, the women’s movement has been working for decades to make it clear that women are as competent as men in any intellectual pursuit of the modern age. And this ongoing work has, largely, been successful in terms of eliminated many long-held cultural biases. So why have women not stepped up to the plate in terms of taking on IT jobs? Or is it a gross bias coming from the managerial standpoint? Many view it as particularly strange because the IT sector is one that often offers internet-commuting options, which make it even more possible for mothers to work from home. Unlike many careers where women must take time off to have and raise children (due to time pressures, stress, long hours, and travel requirements) IT work frequently presents no such challenge.
I’m afraid that I can’t offer you an answer to the question here, nor a solution to the problem. I can only state that, when compared with IT departments worldwide, America does experience the least diversity in the IT programming field. Many feel that such a lack of diversity will harm American programming in the long run. Just as women bring something new and different to the table in terms of corporate management styles and executive marketing efforts, they bring something different to the techy world as well. What will the long-term consequences be of a decline in the already low levels of female techies? Only time will tell.
Outsourcing and offshoring have been the catch phrases of the recession. Preventing companies from utilizing untaxed, out-of-country workers (who receive pennies for each dollar an American worker would receive) has become a central issue in business and government news. Of course, every industry has a different take on the problem. Many feel they could not survive without going overseas for cheap labor, while many others feel that if you “can’t survive” by supporting the American economy, your business has now place in the economy in the first place. But where is the issue of “offpeopling” in all of these debates?
These days, you’d think it was a crime to ever be insecure. Every success guru and business advisor tells people to project a confident air through their clothing, their speech, their actions, their walk, everything. All of this teaches us to keep up the pretense. Don’t let anyone know when you are being human—being insecure, neurotic, paranoid, and all that. We all feel that way now and then, even the most successful, most typically self-confident among us. Says Chu, in Thick Face, Black Heart: “Only fools and saints are absolutely secure about themselves.” It’s what makes us people, not machines. But is there any way we can make neurosis and insecurity work to our advantage? Certainly, it’s been done throughout the ages.
In “Thick Face, Black Heart—the path to thriving, winning, and succeeding,” Chu talks about how you shouldn’t berate yourself for your negative features. Simply use them to create success for yourself. If you are greedy, go ahead and be greedy, but don’t let that greed stop at money. Let yourself be greedy for the best life for your family, for a better community, a better world. Let the greed be well-rounded and it will serve you well. Another thing we often berate ourselves for is procrastination.
If you are a negative thinker, don’t bother with success mantras and positive-thinking chants such as “every day in every way I’m getting better and better.” Just skip it. I’m serious. Another side of the coin of negative thinking is the fact that you have a full awareness of just what your flaws are. Now that you have that awareness, thank your lucky stars for it and try to turn those flaws into springboards.
It can be difficult, when you are in the job market, to know if the salary you are being offered is fair and if it is too risky to ask for more. Yet you have got to stand up for yourself when it comes to salary. If not you, then who? So there are a few salary secrets that can help you understand the situation a little bit better either when you are being offered a job in a down market, or when you are considering asking for a raise.
These days, technology in the schools is a big catch phrase when it comes to education innovation. Technology workers are needed to establish networks in schools and maintain them as well as to train school personnel, and students, in the latest technology. Are you looking for a new career away from the suit-and-tie corporate world? If you decide to look into schools, you may find a rewarding career, but be prepared!
If your office has a system, such as ID cards or passkeys, or even, heaven forbid, clock punching, that allows you entry and determines your work hours, it may soon be switching to something fancier: a facial recognition time clock combined with a door lock. These gadgets, which cost under five hundred bucks, do a 3D scan of your face when you arrive at the door and take in all the information. What time you got to work, what time you left work, what mood you were in (probably), how many pimples, new stress lines appearing, and your taste in clothes. Luckily, it doesn’t make comments.
Dharma. Many of us have heard the word in discussions of eastern philosophy, but few understand the importance of its meaning to people of all professions. Dharma is personal responsibility combined with one’s social, familial, or professional duty—all with the concept of equilibrium or balance in mind. In Chu’s book, Thick Face, Black Heart, she describes the inherent importance of dharma to those seeking success in any realm.
