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A worrying decline in the number of female ICT professionals has “serious and far reaching consequences for the UK economy”, Intellect has warned. The warning from the hi-tech trade body comes in light of its own DTI-backed research, which shows the number of women employed in Britain’s IT sector has fallen to a low of 16%. Initiatives to attract more women into ICT have largely failed, evidenced by the pool of female candidates narrowing for the past five years, the group’s research shows. Many of today’s women working in information technology, electronics and communications industries can be found in the “lower skilled” and “lower paid areas”, its research shows. Internationally the UK fares well in terms of the total women employed by ICT, however, ranking seventh overall, but behind rivals Ireland, Canada, Australia and the US. Improving the diversity of the UK’s IT workforce was hailed as a task made all the more difficult by unfair recruitment practices. Retention rates would also rise, when industry combats a “culture [that] perpetuates recruitment of identical candidates, excludes women and ignores their differing and beneficial skills.” Gillian Arnold, chairman of Intellect’s Women in IT Forum, did however compliment the private sector for stepping in to tackle gender inequalities in their organisations. Her recommendations to the industry were echoed by Carrie Hartnell, a programme manager at Intellect. “As an industry we must begin by tackling the cultural barriers, which have prevented the effective recruitment and retention of women,” she said. “If this is achieved the presence of women in the high- end sectors of the economy will benefit both the industry and the UK.” “The continuing drop in the number of women in the IT industry, though an international phenomenon, continues to have serious and far reaching implications for the UK economy and can no longer be regarded as just a diversity issue.” Elsewhere, the research showed the number of women starting careers in ICT appears to be in decline worldwide, though in a few countries, Germany in particular, the opposite seems to have happened over the last five years. Nov 27, 2006 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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