Oprah Winfrey stands as a role model for many an aspiring woman entrepreneur - a woman with no dearth of talent and skills. Oprah Winfrey scored double over Bill Gates and four times over Richard Branson in a recent poll conducted to select the 'Most admired entrepreneur'. She is the first black woman billionaire and is undoubtedly one of the most influential people in today's entertainment industry. Statistics reveal that woman entrepreneurs in America employ 19.1million people and contribute $2.5 trillion to the economy. Also, women own 47.7% of all private companies in USA.
Data that proves that woman as powerful, decisive, multi-task-oriented personalities are well suited for the competitive world of big business. Women have been managing important portfolios, be it on the political scenario or economic development. But today the world is seeing such examples in plenty. More and more women are having the final say in the boardroom, they head corporations and women entrepreneurs have evolved a new style of leadership.
What makes a woman tread a hitherto male-dominated pursuit and combat challenges to reach entrepreneurial success? What are the common traits that all successful woman entrepreneurs possess? How does a woman initiate the process of discovering, what helps her in evaluating and how methodical is her approach?
Women entrepreneur data
Before analyzing the special traits in successful woman entrepreneurs, a glance at the physiological variations in the brains of men and women can be beneficial.
This reveals that women are endowed with natural advantages that aid in creating, developing and fostering relationships. Not restricting herself to merely fostering relationships with her family, friends and society, a successful woman uses this proficiency to build and maintain a flourishing business enterprise. She translates her natural advantages into effective networking, excellent communication skills and empathetic behavior. Her mastery over multi-tasking influences her to initiate action with direction and integrate it with management and organizational skills. A successful woman entrepreneur has the attitude and the inner drive to change her dream, her vision into reality.
Most successful women entrepreneurs possess the following traits:
She is ambitious
A successful woman entrepreneur is extremely ambitious, has an inner urge or drive to transform an idea into reality. Experience from her previous tenure as an employee, relying on educational qualifications or lessons learnt from inherited business, she is ready to seize opportunities, sets goal, possess clear vision, steps confidently forward and is ambitious to succeed. Every successful woman entrepreneur is truly determined to achieve goals and make her business flourish. In-depth knowledge of the field is essential to success. She comes with new innovative solutions to old problems to tide over issues.
She is confident
A successful woman entrepreneur is confident in her ability. She is ready to learn from others, seek help from experts if it means adding value to her goals. She is optimistic and is more willing to take risks. A successful woman entrepreneur uses common sense to make sound judgements when encountering everyday situations. This is gleaned from past experience and knowledge acquired over the years. It is essential not to get frustrated and give up when you face obstacles and trials ? a part of setting up any business venture. The ability to explore uncharted territories and take bold decisions is the hallmark of a successful woman entrepreneur. A successful woman usually loves what she does. She is extremely passionate about her tasks and activities. Her high energy levels motivate her to contribute immensely towards building, establishing and maintaining a thriving business.
She is open and willing to learn
A successful woman entrepreneur keeps abreast of changes, as she is fully aware of the importance of evolving changes. She is ahead of her competitors and thrives on changes. She adapts her business to changes in technology or service expectations of her clients. She is curious, interested to learn and accommodative to innovations.
She is cost conscious
A successful woman entrepreneur prepares realistic budget estimates. She provides cost-effective quality services to her clients. With minimized cost of operations, she is able to drive her team to maximize profits and reap its benefits.
She values teamwork and loyalty
She has the ability to work with all levels of people. She is keen on maintaining relationships and communicates clearly and effectively. This helps her to negotiate even sensitive issues easily. She is empathetic to people around her and possess good networking skills that help her to expand contacts and make use of opportunities.
She can balance home and work
Cautious of not becoming a workaholic, a successful woman entrepreneur is good at balancing diverse aspects of life. Her multi-tasking ability combined with support from spouse and family members enables her to blend business priorities with family and household responsibilities efficiently and effectively.
She is conscious of her responsibility to society
A successful woman entrepreneur is willing to share her success with the society. She is committed to help others and enjoys doing it.
It is no wonder that millions of aspiring woman entrepreneurs admire Oprah Winfrey for her entrepreneurial skills, business achievements, and commitment to philanthropy. A woman can choose self-owned business as her career choice provided she is to ready to face the challenges that lie ahead of her, ready to walk the extra mile and ready to rely on her own vast resources and abilities.
From India, Ahmadabad
7Data that proves that woman as powerful, decisive, multi-task-oriented personalities are well suited for the competitive world of big business. Women have been managing important portfolios, be it on the political scenario or economic development. But today the world is seeing such examples in plenty. More and more women are having the final say in the boardroom, they head corporations and women entrepreneurs have evolved a new style of leadership.
What makes a woman tread a hitherto male-dominated pursuit and combat challenges to reach entrepreneurial success? What are the common traits that all successful woman entrepreneurs possess? How does a woman initiate the process of discovering, what helps her in evaluating and how methodical is her approach?
Women entrepreneur data
Before analyzing the special traits in successful woman entrepreneurs, a glance at the physiological variations in the brains of men and women can be beneficial.
- Male brains are 10% larger than female brains.
- Female has more nerve cells in certain areas.
- Women transfer data faster due to larger corpus collusum, making it easier for increased flexibility and multitasking.
- Men are left-brain oriented and are largely successful in solving numbers and problems.
- 'Gray matter' - the part that allows thinking is 55.4% in women and 50.8% in men.
This reveals that women are endowed with natural advantages that aid in creating, developing and fostering relationships. Not restricting herself to merely fostering relationships with her family, friends and society, a successful woman uses this proficiency to build and maintain a flourishing business enterprise. She translates her natural advantages into effective networking, excellent communication skills and empathetic behavior. Her mastery over multi-tasking influences her to initiate action with direction and integrate it with management and organizational skills. A successful woman entrepreneur has the attitude and the inner drive to change her dream, her vision into reality.
Most successful women entrepreneurs possess the following traits:
She is ambitious
A successful woman entrepreneur is extremely ambitious, has an inner urge or drive to transform an idea into reality. Experience from her previous tenure as an employee, relying on educational qualifications or lessons learnt from inherited business, she is ready to seize opportunities, sets goal, possess clear vision, steps confidently forward and is ambitious to succeed. Every successful woman entrepreneur is truly determined to achieve goals and make her business flourish. In-depth knowledge of the field is essential to success. She comes with new innovative solutions to old problems to tide over issues.
She is confident
A successful woman entrepreneur is confident in her ability. She is ready to learn from others, seek help from experts if it means adding value to her goals. She is optimistic and is more willing to take risks. A successful woman entrepreneur uses common sense to make sound judgements when encountering everyday situations. This is gleaned from past experience and knowledge acquired over the years. It is essential not to get frustrated and give up when you face obstacles and trials ? a part of setting up any business venture. The ability to explore uncharted territories and take bold decisions is the hallmark of a successful woman entrepreneur. A successful woman usually loves what she does. She is extremely passionate about her tasks and activities. Her high energy levels motivate her to contribute immensely towards building, establishing and maintaining a thriving business.
She is open and willing to learn
A successful woman entrepreneur keeps abreast of changes, as she is fully aware of the importance of evolving changes. She is ahead of her competitors and thrives on changes. She adapts her business to changes in technology or service expectations of her clients. She is curious, interested to learn and accommodative to innovations.
She is cost conscious
A successful woman entrepreneur prepares realistic budget estimates. She provides cost-effective quality services to her clients. With minimized cost of operations, she is able to drive her team to maximize profits and reap its benefits.
She values teamwork and loyalty
She has the ability to work with all levels of people. She is keen on maintaining relationships and communicates clearly and effectively. This helps her to negotiate even sensitive issues easily. She is empathetic to people around her and possess good networking skills that help her to expand contacts and make use of opportunities.
She can balance home and work
Cautious of not becoming a workaholic, a successful woman entrepreneur is good at balancing diverse aspects of life. Her multi-tasking ability combined with support from spouse and family members enables her to blend business priorities with family and household responsibilities efficiently and effectively.
She is conscious of her responsibility to society
A successful woman entrepreneur is willing to share her success with the society. She is committed to help others and enjoys doing it.
It is no wonder that millions of aspiring woman entrepreneurs admire Oprah Winfrey for her entrepreneurial skills, business achievements, and commitment to philanthropy. A woman can choose self-owned business as her career choice provided she is to ready to face the challenges that lie ahead of her, ready to walk the extra mile and ready to rely on her own vast resources and abilities.
From India, Ahmadabad
Womans Survival Reality Based Personal Protection 2008 DVDR NTSC-420RipZ [www.ilovetorrents.com]
Womans Survival Reality Based Personal Protection 2008 DVDR NTSC-420RipZ [www.ilovetorrents.com] : Movies > Tutorial - Mininova
From India, Ahmadabad
Womans Survival Reality Based Personal Protection 2008 DVDR NTSC-420RipZ [www.ilovetorrents.com] : Movies > Tutorial - Mininova
From India, Ahmadabad
Two articles about women in IT appeared in the press recently. Writing in Computing on 8 September, Gillian Arnold explained that, "Recruiting and retaining experienced women in our industry is of paramount importance, and is fundamental to the future competitiveness of the UK's IT industry. In an industry that regards itself as leading-edge in the value it delivers to the UK economy and society, companies can no longer avoid addressing their failure to create a working environment that attracts and retains senior, qualified women. The number of women working in the IT industry fell from 27 per cent in 1997 to 21 per cent in 2004. And even though the number of women employed in the IT industry has stabilised, the sector is still losing experienced, senior women from its ranks. Unfortunately, there are still organisations, or senior individuals, within the technology industry that believe talk of diversity is a meaningless diversion from the conduct and professionalism of everyday business life."
By contrast Female IT managers topple men in pay league appeared on the silicon.com website on 19 September in which Andy McCue reported that, "Female IT managers are for the first time earning more than their male counterparts and women are also climbing the corporate ladder faster, according to the annual salary survey from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Across all sectors the average female team leader, at 37 years old, is four years younger than her male counterpart, while female IT managers earn on average £45,869 per year - £779 more than the men do." It was reported Paul Campfield, director of Remuneration Economics, said in a statement: "It is encouraging to see that the number of female managers continues to increase but it is worrying that they are still more likely to resign. The implication is that female managers still face difficulties in the workplace and organisations should address these quickly because, unchallenged, these problems will demotivate and disrupt with the end result being poor performance and productivity levels."
So what is the truth about women's prospects and influence within the IT industry? A number of experts have given their opinions. Professor Alison Adam (UK) pointed out that, "All the evidence so far suggests that women don't fare as well as men in the IT industry in financial terms - things like salary secrets are rife. I doubt this [CMI survey] will mean that there has been a sudden change in the IT industry in gender equity terms- our research [at Salford University] so far suggests that women still have a pretty tough time in the IT industry." Professor Wendy Hall (UK) of University of Southampton agrees, "... it's almost certainly true that less than 20% of the IT workforce is female. And very few of these women get to the top of this very macho world. So those that do get to the top have to be very good." Similarly, Professor Teressa Rees (UK), Pro Vice Chancellor Student/Staff Issues at Cardiff University explained that, "There is a pay gap among [IT] graduates within three years of graduating, companies may well recuit women but are not so good at retaining or promoting them. These figures [from the CMI survey] should not be used to invoke complacency."
In the US the situation for women in IT is difficult. Caroline Wardle (USA) explained that, "... it is not unusual for women and men to be hired at the same salary levels on entry to high-skilled IT jobs, but after a few year the men's salaries outstrip the women's. It is also the case that women's representation in the US IT workforce has been dropping steadily over the past decade and a half." "According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Report 985 produced in May of 2005, women computer and information systems managers earn 79.4% of men's earnings. For computer scientists and systems engineers, women earn 82.6% of what men earn. So the gap has not closed in the US." stated Professor Fran Grodzinsky (USA).
Experts went on to discuss the reasons behind men/women IT employment differences. Eva Turner (UK), Organiser of Women into Computing 2005 pointed out that; "[McCue] does not indicate anything about the power struggles and the conditions under which all workers in today's ICT industries are expected to work (high pressure, highly intensive, available 24 hours/day, no unions etc). ... There is a documented trend of women top managers choosing not to start a family or have children as the pressure of the top success does not allow the to make that choice." This theme was picked up by Professor Fran Grodzinsky (USA); "Our research supports the idea that women are leaving when they have to balance family and child rearing with the enormous time commitment that a managerial role demands. A change in the corporate culture that builds in flexibility might alleviate the drain of top women talent from the industry." If this change does not happen then perhaps the observation by Vanessa Hymas Deputy CEO of IMIS will remain true; "I wonder whether the surveyed females can spot more easily that the battle cannot be won, so move on to an organisation more appreciative of their worth, or whether other pressures on their lives suggest to them that life is just too short to continue the struggle!"
Concerning talent and ability of IT women professionals, Professor Wendy Hall (UK) said, "Increasingly every aspect of what the company does will rely on IT, and so the IT manager/director role is increasingly important in terms of managing up as well as down. These are all skills that bat to the strengths of women." However there was a different view from Professor Vivian Lagesen from the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She was dismissive of the idea that women are better than men at people skills explaining, "... and as my own research has shown, there is a widespread notion or discourse about women being better at communicating, having better people skills, being more versatile, etc. that makes them better computer scientists and perhaps better managers." She continued, "Since many women seem to be not that obsessed with programming, as some men are, they are more likely to seek other career opportunities and often also chooses they way out of the most technical areas of computing and toward other areas such as sales, marketing and as this article shows, also management. Also, my own research show that women to a much larger extent than men are recruited to computer science studies because of career opportunities, whilst men are more often recruited because of interest in computers. I think these may be the most important points in this respect."
Please send your views on ethical and social responsibility issues and cases of ethical dilemmas to:
From India, Ahmadabad
By contrast Female IT managers topple men in pay league appeared on the silicon.com website on 19 September in which Andy McCue reported that, "Female IT managers are for the first time earning more than their male counterparts and women are also climbing the corporate ladder faster, according to the annual salary survey from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Across all sectors the average female team leader, at 37 years old, is four years younger than her male counterpart, while female IT managers earn on average £45,869 per year - £779 more than the men do." It was reported Paul Campfield, director of Remuneration Economics, said in a statement: "It is encouraging to see that the number of female managers continues to increase but it is worrying that they are still more likely to resign. The implication is that female managers still face difficulties in the workplace and organisations should address these quickly because, unchallenged, these problems will demotivate and disrupt with the end result being poor performance and productivity levels."
So what is the truth about women's prospects and influence within the IT industry? A number of experts have given their opinions. Professor Alison Adam (UK) pointed out that, "All the evidence so far suggests that women don't fare as well as men in the IT industry in financial terms - things like salary secrets are rife. I doubt this [CMI survey] will mean that there has been a sudden change in the IT industry in gender equity terms- our research [at Salford University] so far suggests that women still have a pretty tough time in the IT industry." Professor Wendy Hall (UK) of University of Southampton agrees, "... it's almost certainly true that less than 20% of the IT workforce is female. And very few of these women get to the top of this very macho world. So those that do get to the top have to be very good." Similarly, Professor Teressa Rees (UK), Pro Vice Chancellor Student/Staff Issues at Cardiff University explained that, "There is a pay gap among [IT] graduates within three years of graduating, companies may well recuit women but are not so good at retaining or promoting them. These figures [from the CMI survey] should not be used to invoke complacency."
In the US the situation for women in IT is difficult. Caroline Wardle (USA) explained that, "... it is not unusual for women and men to be hired at the same salary levels on entry to high-skilled IT jobs, but after a few year the men's salaries outstrip the women's. It is also the case that women's representation in the US IT workforce has been dropping steadily over the past decade and a half." "According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Report 985 produced in May of 2005, women computer and information systems managers earn 79.4% of men's earnings. For computer scientists and systems engineers, women earn 82.6% of what men earn. So the gap has not closed in the US." stated Professor Fran Grodzinsky (USA).
Experts went on to discuss the reasons behind men/women IT employment differences. Eva Turner (UK), Organiser of Women into Computing 2005 pointed out that; "[McCue] does not indicate anything about the power struggles and the conditions under which all workers in today's ICT industries are expected to work (high pressure, highly intensive, available 24 hours/day, no unions etc). ... There is a documented trend of women top managers choosing not to start a family or have children as the pressure of the top success does not allow the to make that choice." This theme was picked up by Professor Fran Grodzinsky (USA); "Our research supports the idea that women are leaving when they have to balance family and child rearing with the enormous time commitment that a managerial role demands. A change in the corporate culture that builds in flexibility might alleviate the drain of top women talent from the industry." If this change does not happen then perhaps the observation by Vanessa Hymas Deputy CEO of IMIS will remain true; "I wonder whether the surveyed females can spot more easily that the battle cannot be won, so move on to an organisation more appreciative of their worth, or whether other pressures on their lives suggest to them that life is just too short to continue the struggle!"
Concerning talent and ability of IT women professionals, Professor Wendy Hall (UK) said, "Increasingly every aspect of what the company does will rely on IT, and so the IT manager/director role is increasingly important in terms of managing up as well as down. These are all skills that bat to the strengths of women." However there was a different view from Professor Vivian Lagesen from the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She was dismissive of the idea that women are better than men at people skills explaining, "... and as my own research has shown, there is a widespread notion or discourse about women being better at communicating, having better people skills, being more versatile, etc. that makes them better computer scientists and perhaps better managers." She continued, "Since many women seem to be not that obsessed with programming, as some men are, they are more likely to seek other career opportunities and often also chooses they way out of the most technical areas of computing and toward other areas such as sales, marketing and as this article shows, also management. Also, my own research show that women to a much larger extent than men are recruited to computer science studies because of career opportunities, whilst men are more often recruited because of interest in computers. I think these may be the most important points in this respect."
Please send your views on ethical and social responsibility issues and cases of ethical dilemmas to:
From India, Ahmadabad
Women Explained... by Engineers. Funny Pictures. Yoke Main Page.
Women Explained...by Engineers
From India, Ahmadabad
Women Explained...by Engineers
From India, Ahmadabad
Hi
In your post u mentioned a case wherein one women got a call from her boss and her boss fired her for not informing in advance about planning a baby.
And the real case studies in citehr shows that the HR people of citehr too are of the same thinking of the above BOSs, ie a real case discussion of a marriage case, wherein employee demanded 45 days leave and then her possibility of going abroad invited the wrath of all HRs on this cite with major demanding to enquire the candidates at time of interview regarding their plans of having baby, getting married, etc, n then deciding the job on basis of answers given by candidates.
Even major members of CITEHR are still having same old thinking,
From India, Pune
In your post u mentioned a case wherein one women got a call from her boss and her boss fired her for not informing in advance about planning a baby.
And the real case studies in citehr shows that the HR people of citehr too are of the same thinking of the above BOSs, ie a real case discussion of a marriage case, wherein employee demanded 45 days leave and then her possibility of going abroad invited the wrath of all HRs on this cite with major demanding to enquire the candidates at time of interview regarding their plans of having baby, getting married, etc, n then deciding the job on basis of answers given by candidates.
Even major members of CITEHR are still having same old thinking,
From India, Pune
:) Yes... discrimination continues and will do so for sometime. The corporate world does not want to make any changes to the existing tried & tested methods of sticking to the old routine of having more "MAN"power!!!
I think Women by nature are extremely capable in all areas of life. She is a mutlifaceted personality and a force to reckon with.. so the Organisations need to wake up and focus on creating a flexible work environment, measure performance through outputs, emphazise on goals/values – be it personal or family, with business strategies adhering to these values, give suitable training programmes and thus wake up to empowering Women. This would also groom Women Leaders!!
I think Women are GOD's gift to "Mankind" and this will never change. What do you say guys...? Let us take a leaf out of Pepsico CEO - Indra Nooyi or Our Bright shining Star..Kiran Bedi! Indra Nooyi is turning pepsico around with production and selling based on values of good, healthy living!!!! Kiran Bedi is another living example and a person I admire for the tough fight she put up in a man's world!!!
Good LUck Guys!! Be Positive!:)
From India, Madras
I think Women by nature are extremely capable in all areas of life. She is a mutlifaceted personality and a force to reckon with.. so the Organisations need to wake up and focus on creating a flexible work environment, measure performance through outputs, emphazise on goals/values – be it personal or family, with business strategies adhering to these values, give suitable training programmes and thus wake up to empowering Women. This would also groom Women Leaders!!
I think Women are GOD's gift to "Mankind" and this will never change. What do you say guys...? Let us take a leaf out of Pepsico CEO - Indra Nooyi or Our Bright shining Star..Kiran Bedi! Indra Nooyi is turning pepsico around with production and selling based on values of good, healthy living!!!! Kiran Bedi is another living example and a person I admire for the tough fight she put up in a man's world!!!
Good LUck Guys!! Be Positive!:)
From India, Madras
Hi Jay,
Thanks for your articles. And I agree with you upto some extent.
I have seen many gals / ladies are themselves are not aware what they are and what they can do. They are happy in late coming and early going.
Gals / ladies needs to change themselves, it should come from their behavior.
If I change myself then only I will get capability to change the society.
This is just a very raw thought. We can continue Discussion.
Regards,
Resh
From India, Mumbai
Thanks for your articles. And I agree with you upto some extent.
I have seen many gals / ladies are themselves are not aware what they are and what they can do. They are happy in late coming and early going.
Gals / ladies needs to change themselves, it should come from their behavior.
If I change myself then only I will get capability to change the society.
This is just a very raw thought. We can continue Discussion.
Regards,
Resh
From India, Mumbai
Introduction
Women are under represented in the Information Technology (IT) workforce. In the United States, although women make up about forty five percent of the overall labor force they make up only about thirty five percent of the IT workforce. (Information Technology Association of America 2003, p. 11). Within IT, women’s representation declines as one moves up to higher level occupations. While women are relatively more numerous among data entry keyers and computer operators, they are relatively less likely to be found in high level occupations like systems analysts and computer programmers.
The relatively low representation of women in IT fields parallels a broader pattern of gender differentials in other scientific and technical fields. In all science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields combined, women held 25.9 percent of jobs in 2003. Women’s representation varies widely by sub-fields, however: 65.8 percent of psychologists and 54.6 percent of social scientists are women, but only 10.4 percent of engineers, and 37.4 percent of natural scientists (Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology 2004, p. 2).
Over the course of the past 100 years there has been a dramatic change in women’s economic role. In 1900 only one in five adult women worked outside the home, and most of these were young and unmarried (Goldin 1990, ch. 1). Since then male and female labor force participation rates have tended to converge. Between 1900 and 1950 there was a gradual expansion of women’s labor force participation. After World War II the pace of change accelerated sharply as more married women entered the labor force. During the 1960s and early 1970s a series of legal changes significantly broadened protection of women’s rights ending essentially all forms of overt discrimination (Fuchs 1988, chs. 1-2; Long 2001, pp. 9-10). The removal of these barriers in combination with the availability of cheap and reliable birth control technology greatly facilitated the entry of women into higher education, and technical and professional positions (Goldin and Katz 2002).
Nevertheless, as the figures cited at the outset reveal, women’s participation in IT and other technical fields has not increased as rapidly as it has in less technical fields. And in striking contrast to the general trend toward increasing female participation in most areas of the workforce, women’s share of the IT workforce in the United States has actually declined over the past two decades. Any effort to explain gender differences in IT must begin with an understanding of how the number, characteristics and pay of women in IT have evolved over time, and across different sub-fields within IT. This chapter provides a foundation for this analysis by documenting recent changes in the number of women employed in IT, their demographic characteristics and relative pay.
Background
A discussion of the gender composition and characteristics of the IT workforce must begin by clarifying what is meant by IT. This is difficult because IT encompasses a broad array of products and activities related to computing and communications in the modern economy (Freeman and Aspray 1999, pp. 29-31). Although many workers make use of IT in their jobs most studies agree that only those workers who are responsible for creating IT hardware and software should be included in the IT workforce, while those who are primarily users of these products should be excluded (In addition to Freeman and Aspray, see National Research Council 2001, pp. 44-54; Ellis and Lowell 1999, p. 1).
Whatever conceptual definition one adopts, however, its application is limited by the classification schemes used by agencies engaged in collecting data on different elements of the workforce. In what follows we will focus on those IT occupations that are enumerated in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS data cover Computer Systems Analysts, Computer Programmers, Operations and Systems Researchers, Computer Operators, and Computer Operators Supervisors. These occupations constitute more or less what the National Research Council (2001, p. 48) has termed "Category 1" IT occupations: those involved with the creation of new products, services and applications. CPS data do not permit us to measure or describe the characteristics of the National Research Council’s "Category 2" occupations: those involved in the application, adaptation, configuration, support or implementation of IT products or services (National Research Council 2001, p. 49). Because occupational titles do not adequately capture the IT content of the support activities of many of the technicians and other occupations included in this group it is more difficult to adequately measure its size or demographic characteristics.
Main Thrust
An Overview of IT Labor Market Conditions
The rapid and sustained decline in the cost of computers over the past two decades has been a prominent factor in the reorganization of work in the United States. Between 1984, near the beginning of the personal computer era, and 2001 the quality-adjusted price of computers fell at an average annual rate of 16 percent, resulting in an 18-fold drop in price (US Department of Commerce; cited in Weil 2005, p. 263). As personal computers diffused into widespread use, mini-computers vanished from the market, and sales of large corporate mainframes languished. Shifting markets and the changing needs of users resulted in significant shifts in the software industry. Growing consumer markets fostered growth of the packaged software industry, and created whole new categories of software. Since the early 1990s, the spread of the internet and the increasing importance of networked computing have initiated a new round of changes in the IT industry (Mowery and Rosenberg 1998, ch. 151-63). Adding to demand pressures during the late 1990s was global concern about the Y2K problem.
Strong demand for IT professionals contributed to a rapid expansion of the IT workforce and rising relative pay. From 1983 to the peak of the technology boom in 2000, the IT workforce more than doubled in size, increasing from 1.47 million to 3.13 million persons. To put this in perspective, during this same period the total U.S. labor force increased by just 34 percent, from 99.5 million persons to 132.2 million persons (these figures and all the subsequent statistics are derived from the authors’ computations based on data from the Current Population Survey’s merged outgoing rotation groups). Despite the loss of more than 200 thousand IT jobs in the next two years, the IT labor force in 2002 was still 96 percent larger than it had been in 1983.
To draw more workers into IT jobs relative pay had to rise substantially. In 1983 the median hourly wage of full-time IT professionals was about 20 percent above that for all non-IT occupations. By the late 1990s the wage gap had more than tripled, so that IT professionals earned more than 60 percent more than did workers outside of IT.
The growth of IT employment coincided with important changes in the type of jobs performed by IT professionals. Most obviously, as the importance of mainframe computers diminished, the number of computer operators fell substantially. From a peak of 962 thousand computer operators in 1986, the number of computer operators had fallen to just over 300 thousand by 2002. From being close to half of all IT professionals in the mid-1980s this category of workers fell to under 11 percent of the IT workforce by 2002. Offsetting this decline was the extremely rapid growth in the number of computer systems analysts and scientists. This segment of the IT labor force grew from 273 thousand in 1983 to more than 1.7 million in 2002. By the latter year, this category of workers constituted over 60 percent of all IT professionals, up from less than 20 percent in the early 1980s.
Gender Differences in Employment, Earnings and Hours
Contrary to the trends in most of the US labor force, the share of women in the IT workforce has declined substantially over the past two decades. In 1983 women made up slightly more of the full-time IT workforce, 43 percent, than they did of all full-time non-IT workers, 40 percent. By 2002, however, the share of women in IT had fallen sharply, dropping to 30 percent, while the share in the non-IT workforce had risen to over 49 percent.
The decline of female representation in IT is troubling, but much of this decline can be accounted for by the declining number of computer operators. Removing this group the share of women in other IT occupations has remained quite stable at around 28 to 29 percent of the workforce. Thus the falling share of women reflects the growing importance within IT of occupations that have traditionally been dominated by men (and, implicitly, the failure of more women to enter these traditionally male-dominated fields).
As is true more generally, women in IT earn less than men do. Indeed the gender wage gap in IT is quite similar to that in the rest of the labor force. In 2002 women in IT earned 82.5 percent as much per hour as men, while in the rest of the labor force they earned 82.8 percent of what men did. Average pay for computer operators is considerably lower than for other IT occupations, so the concentration of women in this field tends to magnify the gender pay gap. Excluding computer operators, women earned about 86 percent of what men did in the remaining IT occupations. This pay ratio has been approximately constant over the past two decades, increasing only from 83 percent in the early 1980s.
IT occupations are often characterized as involving long hours and requiring a significant time commitment. One reflection of this is the higher proportion of both men and women in IT who work full time. In 2002, 95 percent of men and 91 percent of women in IT worked full-time. In non-IT jobs 87 percent of men and just 73 percent of women worked full-time. As a result the average women in IT worked more than 3 additional hours per week than did the average woman in a non-IT job (39.5 hours compared to 36.2 hours). The longer hours in IT may be one factor that discourages women–especially those with young children–from going into or staying in the field.
Gender Differences in Demographic Characteristics
Table 1 summarizes a variety of demographic characteristics for IT and non-IT occupations broken down by gender. As the table reveals, IT workers tend to be somewhat younger than the rest of the labor force. This is especially true for male IT workers, who are on average more than three years younger than their non-IT counterparts, but female IT workers are also younger than women in non-IT occupations. Reflecting the high levels of training needed to enter IT professions, many more workers in IT jobs have bachelors degrees or higher. Fully two-thirds of men and more than half of women in IT occupations have at least a Bachelors degree, compared to 30 percent of men and 31 percent of women in non-IT occupations.
Table 1:
Selected Demographic Characteristics of Information Technology and Non-Information Technology Workers, 2002
Information Technology Non-Information Technology
Male Female Male Female
Average age 37.9 39.9 41.0 41.0
Percent with Bachelors Degree 50.0 39.4 19.4 21.0
Percent with more than Bachelor's Degree 19.0 13.6 10.49 10.1
Percent married, spouse present 64.9 53.4 64.7 54.3
Percent never married 26.2 27.4 22.6 22.7
Percent living with one or more of their own children 58.2 54.2 56.3 53.8
Source: Authors' calculations from Current Population Survey merged outgoing rotation group data.
In contrast to the differences in age and education levels, the percent of workers who are married with spouse present is relatively similar between IT and non-IT occupations. It is true, however, that IT workers are somewhat more likely to have never been married than is true for those in non-IT occupations, but it seems likely that this is due to the fact that IT professionals are younger than the non-IT workforce. Reflecting the fact that married women are still more likely to exit the labor force than are married men, within both groups working women are less likely to be married with their spouse present than is true for men. On the other hand, the proportions of workers with one or more of their own children present in the household is quite similar between IT and non-IT occupations, suggesting that this pattern is similar for both IT and non-IT workers.
Future Trends
After nearly two decades of explosive growth and transformation the expansion of the IT workforce came to an abrupt halt with the collapse of the technology bubble in 2001. For the past several years the number of IT workers has been declining. This decline is generally expected to be temporary, and most forecasts anticipate that employment in IT occupations will continue to grow more quickly than in the labor force generally, though the differential is unlikely to be as large as it was in the past (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004).
In the past few years there has been increasing concern about the role of off-shoring in IT job losses. There have been numerous reports of companies exporting technical support and programming jobs to suppliers in India, China, and other low-wage countries with well-educated labor forces. Given the large international differences in wages, shifting some tasks to Asian countries is an attractive option for U.S. companies seeking to cut labor costs. But it is important not to overstate the potential impact of this trend. Off-shoring is most effective when the tasks to be performed have been routinized. These, in turn are the sorts of jobs that are most in-danger of being automated in any event. Jobs requiring specialized knowledge of business practices and discretionary decisions are likely to continue to be performed in proximity to customers, thus ensuring that the vast majority of higher level IT jobs, such as those performed by systems analysts, will remain in the United States (Edwards 2004).
While this suggests that IT job losses in the United States due to off-shoring may be small, it also suggests that the composition of IT jobs will remain biased towards those high skilled jobs that contain relatively few women. Thus prospects for increasing the representation of women in IT appear relatively bleak. If relatively few women have been drawn into the rapidly growing field of computer systems analysts and scientists during the period of rapid expansion in employment, opportunities for women are likely to remain limited in the future as aggregate growth slows. More research is needed to understand why women have tended to avoid these higher-level IT jobs, and to identify those dimensions of education, hiring, and retention that have produced such large gender gaps in representation.
Conclusion
During the past half-century gender differences in the labor market have closed substantially. Overall, women’s labor force participation behavior has come increasingly to resemble that of men, so that today women constitute approximately half of the US labor force. Although a gender earnings gap remains today, the size of this gap has been reduced considerably, and after accounting for differences in education, experience and other characteristics it is smaller than indicated by unadjusted comparisons.
Set against the background of these broad labor market changes, gender differences in Information Technology are striking. While total employment in IT has grown rapidly, women’s share of employment across all IT occupations has fallen substantially over the past two decades. The absence of women does not reflect an absence of financial incentives. Gender pay gaps in IT have paralleled those in the workforce generally. Since pay in IT occupations has grown quite quickly women could realize significant financial rewards from moving into IT occupations.
Although the growing gender gap in IT employment is largely due to changes in the mix of IT occupations that has increased the numbers of computer systems analysts and scientists, the fact remains that women hold less than one-third of such jobs today, about the same proportion as they held 20 years earlier. The persistent under representation of women in these higher level IT occupations is an as yet unexplained phenomenon that requires further study.
From India, Ahmadabad
Women are under represented in the Information Technology (IT) workforce. In the United States, although women make up about forty five percent of the overall labor force they make up only about thirty five percent of the IT workforce. (Information Technology Association of America 2003, p. 11). Within IT, women’s representation declines as one moves up to higher level occupations. While women are relatively more numerous among data entry keyers and computer operators, they are relatively less likely to be found in high level occupations like systems analysts and computer programmers.
The relatively low representation of women in IT fields parallels a broader pattern of gender differentials in other scientific and technical fields. In all science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields combined, women held 25.9 percent of jobs in 2003. Women’s representation varies widely by sub-fields, however: 65.8 percent of psychologists and 54.6 percent of social scientists are women, but only 10.4 percent of engineers, and 37.4 percent of natural scientists (Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology 2004, p. 2).
Over the course of the past 100 years there has been a dramatic change in women’s economic role. In 1900 only one in five adult women worked outside the home, and most of these were young and unmarried (Goldin 1990, ch. 1). Since then male and female labor force participation rates have tended to converge. Between 1900 and 1950 there was a gradual expansion of women’s labor force participation. After World War II the pace of change accelerated sharply as more married women entered the labor force. During the 1960s and early 1970s a series of legal changes significantly broadened protection of women’s rights ending essentially all forms of overt discrimination (Fuchs 1988, chs. 1-2; Long 2001, pp. 9-10). The removal of these barriers in combination with the availability of cheap and reliable birth control technology greatly facilitated the entry of women into higher education, and technical and professional positions (Goldin and Katz 2002).
Nevertheless, as the figures cited at the outset reveal, women’s participation in IT and other technical fields has not increased as rapidly as it has in less technical fields. And in striking contrast to the general trend toward increasing female participation in most areas of the workforce, women’s share of the IT workforce in the United States has actually declined over the past two decades. Any effort to explain gender differences in IT must begin with an understanding of how the number, characteristics and pay of women in IT have evolved over time, and across different sub-fields within IT. This chapter provides a foundation for this analysis by documenting recent changes in the number of women employed in IT, their demographic characteristics and relative pay.
Background
A discussion of the gender composition and characteristics of the IT workforce must begin by clarifying what is meant by IT. This is difficult because IT encompasses a broad array of products and activities related to computing and communications in the modern economy (Freeman and Aspray 1999, pp. 29-31). Although many workers make use of IT in their jobs most studies agree that only those workers who are responsible for creating IT hardware and software should be included in the IT workforce, while those who are primarily users of these products should be excluded (In addition to Freeman and Aspray, see National Research Council 2001, pp. 44-54; Ellis and Lowell 1999, p. 1).
Whatever conceptual definition one adopts, however, its application is limited by the classification schemes used by agencies engaged in collecting data on different elements of the workforce. In what follows we will focus on those IT occupations that are enumerated in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS data cover Computer Systems Analysts, Computer Programmers, Operations and Systems Researchers, Computer Operators, and Computer Operators Supervisors. These occupations constitute more or less what the National Research Council (2001, p. 48) has termed "Category 1" IT occupations: those involved with the creation of new products, services and applications. CPS data do not permit us to measure or describe the characteristics of the National Research Council’s "Category 2" occupations: those involved in the application, adaptation, configuration, support or implementation of IT products or services (National Research Council 2001, p. 49). Because occupational titles do not adequately capture the IT content of the support activities of many of the technicians and other occupations included in this group it is more difficult to adequately measure its size or demographic characteristics.
Main Thrust
An Overview of IT Labor Market Conditions
The rapid and sustained decline in the cost of computers over the past two decades has been a prominent factor in the reorganization of work in the United States. Between 1984, near the beginning of the personal computer era, and 2001 the quality-adjusted price of computers fell at an average annual rate of 16 percent, resulting in an 18-fold drop in price (US Department of Commerce; cited in Weil 2005, p. 263). As personal computers diffused into widespread use, mini-computers vanished from the market, and sales of large corporate mainframes languished. Shifting markets and the changing needs of users resulted in significant shifts in the software industry. Growing consumer markets fostered growth of the packaged software industry, and created whole new categories of software. Since the early 1990s, the spread of the internet and the increasing importance of networked computing have initiated a new round of changes in the IT industry (Mowery and Rosenberg 1998, ch. 151-63). Adding to demand pressures during the late 1990s was global concern about the Y2K problem.
Strong demand for IT professionals contributed to a rapid expansion of the IT workforce and rising relative pay. From 1983 to the peak of the technology boom in 2000, the IT workforce more than doubled in size, increasing from 1.47 million to 3.13 million persons. To put this in perspective, during this same period the total U.S. labor force increased by just 34 percent, from 99.5 million persons to 132.2 million persons (these figures and all the subsequent statistics are derived from the authors’ computations based on data from the Current Population Survey’s merged outgoing rotation groups). Despite the loss of more than 200 thousand IT jobs in the next two years, the IT labor force in 2002 was still 96 percent larger than it had been in 1983.
To draw more workers into IT jobs relative pay had to rise substantially. In 1983 the median hourly wage of full-time IT professionals was about 20 percent above that for all non-IT occupations. By the late 1990s the wage gap had more than tripled, so that IT professionals earned more than 60 percent more than did workers outside of IT.
The growth of IT employment coincided with important changes in the type of jobs performed by IT professionals. Most obviously, as the importance of mainframe computers diminished, the number of computer operators fell substantially. From a peak of 962 thousand computer operators in 1986, the number of computer operators had fallen to just over 300 thousand by 2002. From being close to half of all IT professionals in the mid-1980s this category of workers fell to under 11 percent of the IT workforce by 2002. Offsetting this decline was the extremely rapid growth in the number of computer systems analysts and scientists. This segment of the IT labor force grew from 273 thousand in 1983 to more than 1.7 million in 2002. By the latter year, this category of workers constituted over 60 percent of all IT professionals, up from less than 20 percent in the early 1980s.
Gender Differences in Employment, Earnings and Hours
Contrary to the trends in most of the US labor force, the share of women in the IT workforce has declined substantially over the past two decades. In 1983 women made up slightly more of the full-time IT workforce, 43 percent, than they did of all full-time non-IT workers, 40 percent. By 2002, however, the share of women in IT had fallen sharply, dropping to 30 percent, while the share in the non-IT workforce had risen to over 49 percent.
The decline of female representation in IT is troubling, but much of this decline can be accounted for by the declining number of computer operators. Removing this group the share of women in other IT occupations has remained quite stable at around 28 to 29 percent of the workforce. Thus the falling share of women reflects the growing importance within IT of occupations that have traditionally been dominated by men (and, implicitly, the failure of more women to enter these traditionally male-dominated fields).
As is true more generally, women in IT earn less than men do. Indeed the gender wage gap in IT is quite similar to that in the rest of the labor force. In 2002 women in IT earned 82.5 percent as much per hour as men, while in the rest of the labor force they earned 82.8 percent of what men did. Average pay for computer operators is considerably lower than for other IT occupations, so the concentration of women in this field tends to magnify the gender pay gap. Excluding computer operators, women earned about 86 percent of what men did in the remaining IT occupations. This pay ratio has been approximately constant over the past two decades, increasing only from 83 percent in the early 1980s.
IT occupations are often characterized as involving long hours and requiring a significant time commitment. One reflection of this is the higher proportion of both men and women in IT who work full time. In 2002, 95 percent of men and 91 percent of women in IT worked full-time. In non-IT jobs 87 percent of men and just 73 percent of women worked full-time. As a result the average women in IT worked more than 3 additional hours per week than did the average woman in a non-IT job (39.5 hours compared to 36.2 hours). The longer hours in IT may be one factor that discourages women–especially those with young children–from going into or staying in the field.
Gender Differences in Demographic Characteristics
Table 1 summarizes a variety of demographic characteristics for IT and non-IT occupations broken down by gender. As the table reveals, IT workers tend to be somewhat younger than the rest of the labor force. This is especially true for male IT workers, who are on average more than three years younger than their non-IT counterparts, but female IT workers are also younger than women in non-IT occupations. Reflecting the high levels of training needed to enter IT professions, many more workers in IT jobs have bachelors degrees or higher. Fully two-thirds of men and more than half of women in IT occupations have at least a Bachelors degree, compared to 30 percent of men and 31 percent of women in non-IT occupations.
Table 1:
Selected Demographic Characteristics of Information Technology and Non-Information Technology Workers, 2002
Information Technology Non-Information Technology
Male Female Male Female
Average age 37.9 39.9 41.0 41.0
Percent with Bachelors Degree 50.0 39.4 19.4 21.0
Percent with more than Bachelor's Degree 19.0 13.6 10.49 10.1
Percent married, spouse present 64.9 53.4 64.7 54.3
Percent never married 26.2 27.4 22.6 22.7
Percent living with one or more of their own children 58.2 54.2 56.3 53.8
Source: Authors' calculations from Current Population Survey merged outgoing rotation group data.
In contrast to the differences in age and education levels, the percent of workers who are married with spouse present is relatively similar between IT and non-IT occupations. It is true, however, that IT workers are somewhat more likely to have never been married than is true for those in non-IT occupations, but it seems likely that this is due to the fact that IT professionals are younger than the non-IT workforce. Reflecting the fact that married women are still more likely to exit the labor force than are married men, within both groups working women are less likely to be married with their spouse present than is true for men. On the other hand, the proportions of workers with one or more of their own children present in the household is quite similar between IT and non-IT occupations, suggesting that this pattern is similar for both IT and non-IT workers.
Future Trends
After nearly two decades of explosive growth and transformation the expansion of the IT workforce came to an abrupt halt with the collapse of the technology bubble in 2001. For the past several years the number of IT workers has been declining. This decline is generally expected to be temporary, and most forecasts anticipate that employment in IT occupations will continue to grow more quickly than in the labor force generally, though the differential is unlikely to be as large as it was in the past (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004).
In the past few years there has been increasing concern about the role of off-shoring in IT job losses. There have been numerous reports of companies exporting technical support and programming jobs to suppliers in India, China, and other low-wage countries with well-educated labor forces. Given the large international differences in wages, shifting some tasks to Asian countries is an attractive option for U.S. companies seeking to cut labor costs. But it is important not to overstate the potential impact of this trend. Off-shoring is most effective when the tasks to be performed have been routinized. These, in turn are the sorts of jobs that are most in-danger of being automated in any event. Jobs requiring specialized knowledge of business practices and discretionary decisions are likely to continue to be performed in proximity to customers, thus ensuring that the vast majority of higher level IT jobs, such as those performed by systems analysts, will remain in the United States (Edwards 2004).
While this suggests that IT job losses in the United States due to off-shoring may be small, it also suggests that the composition of IT jobs will remain biased towards those high skilled jobs that contain relatively few women. Thus prospects for increasing the representation of women in IT appear relatively bleak. If relatively few women have been drawn into the rapidly growing field of computer systems analysts and scientists during the period of rapid expansion in employment, opportunities for women are likely to remain limited in the future as aggregate growth slows. More research is needed to understand why women have tended to avoid these higher-level IT jobs, and to identify those dimensions of education, hiring, and retention that have produced such large gender gaps in representation.
Conclusion
During the past half-century gender differences in the labor market have closed substantially. Overall, women’s labor force participation behavior has come increasingly to resemble that of men, so that today women constitute approximately half of the US labor force. Although a gender earnings gap remains today, the size of this gap has been reduced considerably, and after accounting for differences in education, experience and other characteristics it is smaller than indicated by unadjusted comparisons.
Set against the background of these broad labor market changes, gender differences in Information Technology are striking. While total employment in IT has grown rapidly, women’s share of employment across all IT occupations has fallen substantially over the past two decades. The absence of women does not reflect an absence of financial incentives. Gender pay gaps in IT have paralleled those in the workforce generally. Since pay in IT occupations has grown quite quickly women could realize significant financial rewards from moving into IT occupations.
Although the growing gender gap in IT employment is largely due to changes in the mix of IT occupations that has increased the numbers of computer systems analysts and scientists, the fact remains that women hold less than one-third of such jobs today, about the same proportion as they held 20 years earlier. The persistent under representation of women in these higher level IT occupations is an as yet unexplained phenomenon that requires further study.
From India, Ahmadabad
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From India, Ahmadabad
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