Information Technology Field Lacks Balance of Genders

Information Technology Field Lacks Balance of Genders

Computers: Women have made few inroads in the booming industry, though experts say more than a million new high-tech workers will be needed by 2005.

By ROBERTA G. WAX, Special to The Times

When Patricia Bramhall took her first computer programming class nearly 25 years ago, she was the only female student.Today, the number of women in the high-tech information technology arena is still slim. Which is sad, Bramhall and others in the field say, because information technology work is booming, for men as well as women. The U.S. Office of Technology Policy, for example, projects that U.S. businesses will need more than a million new high-tech workers by 2005.

"There's so much growth and opportunity in IT [information technology]," said Bramhall, who as a senior vice president of information technology for Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. runs a 700-person IT department in Calabasas. "IT pays well, and there is a lot of opportunity to move up or laterally," she said. "It's an open field where creativity is recognized and encouraged."

"Women are definitely under-represented in the high end of the IT work force," agreed Lucy Parakhovnik, an instructor in the computer science department at Cal State Northridge, where only 20% of the computer science students are female. According to Parakhovnik, statistics culled from trade sources and university records show that 31% of all computer programmers are women, while 28% of the systems analysts and computer scientists are women.

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"In the top ranks of technology-based businesses, only 2% of the owners or executives are women," she said. According to Parakhovnik, university statistics reveal that three times more men than women are likely to choose computer science as a major and that women earn but one out of every six bachelor of science degrees in engineering, compared with one out of every three premedical degrees and half the pre-law degrees.

"It's not that women come into [high-tech programs] and drop out. They just don't start," said Rose Marie Dishman, president of the DeVry Institute of Technology's Pomona, Long Beach and soon-to-open West Hills campuses. "It's noticeable." The lack of females in high-tech areas is not because of gender discrimination, but rather lack of education and role models, all agreed. Girls are not told enough about high-tech career options, Dishman said. "Teachers themselves, even at the grade-school level, may be afraid of math and science," said Dishman. "So, by the time a student is in seventh or eighth grade, they are already frightened by the math and science field."

Parakhovnik added that because there are so few female role models in high-tech jobs, women are less encouraged at home, school or work to enter this field.

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"Women are just not encouraged to go into the technical fields," agreed Bramhall, who got into information technology almost as a fluke when she attended a high school career day. She saw a film from the Southern California Regional Occupational Center in Torrance, which offered vocational training for jobs from auto mechanic to dental assistant. "I was fascinated by the data processing part--by the logic of problem solving--and signed up for one class. I was the only girl in all the data processing classes." Sparking interest in information technology should begin in junior high or even elementary school, experts agreed, and mentoring should be a part of the equation.

Women need role models in the field, Parakhovnik said. "Having a mentor, someone who tells you can do things, is very important," said Dishman, who has a doctorate and master's degree in physics and was encouraged to pursue computer training by a succession of mentors, beginning with her eighth-grade math

teacher.

More networking and professional organizations, such as Women in Science and Engineering and Women in Technology International, will also help, the women said.

The image of computer specialists as nerds and geeks hasn't helped attract young women, either, Parakhovnik said. "The image is not an attractive one," she acknowledged. At the start of each semester she wears dresses rather than pants, curls her long hair, uses makeup and even paints her fingernails--"just to kill that nerd image."

Attracting more women to high-tech jobs, Parakhovnik said, starts at home. "It starts with parents encouraging girls. It helps to have a personal computer at home, to take children to workshops

or community activities having to do with science and engineering." Also, she said, teachers and school counselors need to be informed about the wide-open career opportunities in information technology and about the training needed to pursue these jobs. DeVry, for example, has started building its newest campus in West Hills, expected to open in November, and is recruiting more female students by sponsoring three outreach programs: "Young Women in Science Day" with hands-on workshops led by women

employed in science and technology; "CareeReality: Guiding Today's Students in their Search for 21st Century Careers," workshops that show parents how to encourage their daughters in high-tech careers; and "Future Executives Day," which pairs high school students with information technology professionals for a day.

Jobs in information technology are available, said Dishman, and high-tech employment is among Southern California's fastest growing occupations. "More than 70% of the high-tech companies in the U.S. identify

the shortage of skilled [information technology] workers as the leading barrier to their company's growth and competitiveness in global markets," noted Dennis J. Keller, chairman and chief executive officer of DeVry Inc., which owns and operates a chain of schools in nine states and two Canadian provinces.

According to figures from the California Employment Development Department compiled by DeVry, high-tech jobs are among Southern California's fastest growing occupations and the need for systems analysts, computer programmers, electronics engineers and electronics technicians will continue to grow through 2001. By then, figures show, there will be jobs for 11,200 computer engineers alone in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

"Anything that has computer or telecommunications in it is a great job market today," Dishman said.

A study of DeVry graduates from Long Beach and Pomona showed average annual salaries ranging from $28,846 for an electronics technician to $37,141 for a telecommunications manager. As more women come into the field, Dishman said, they will start moving up into executive positions, even heading their own information technology firms. Bramhall began her career as a programmer without PCs or computer knowledge. Her friends and parents were clueless about her studies or about what computers did. "No one had the foresight to think this would be a huge industry. Actually, neither did I."

Today, she said, the rise in popularity and availability of personal computers at home has greatly demystified high technology, making these careers more appealing and less foreign to a new generation. This familiarity may also help entice more women into the field. Today's youngsters, she said, are not the least bit shy about the computer and are more adept at using high technology, unlike when she started in the industry as a computer programmer. "[Children] today are comfortable with [computer technology],"

she said. 'They're not afraid of it. They're always pushing the limits. Information technology is going to be the biggest industry for awhile."

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