The new comedy series, IT Crowd, has been causing a stir in the IT industry. The Channel 4 programme portrays IT professionals as stereotypical ‘geeky’ individuals – an image that seems to be far from the truth and especially in the case of Aberdeen-based IT company, Escape. Your Job looks at why IT still carries the ‘nerd’ label, why more females aren’t working in the industry and what one local company is doing to counteract this problem.

The problem with IT is that it is seen as a male-dominated, ‘nerdy’ industry that doesn’t seem to attract or retain women. There is a definite imbalance in genders across the industry and statistics show that more needs to be done to attract females from an early age (in the UK, girls tend to disengage from IT subjects between the ages of 11 and 15). At degree level, there has been an increase in females studying subjects such as Computer Science but the number of women studying is still far lower than their male counterparts.

The DTI has stated that action needs to be taken to ensure more is being done to recruit, motivate and retain women in hi-tech work. Although the UK IT industry is world leading, it is threatening it’s success by losing valuable skilled women professionals from the sector – to meet the continuing growth in the use of IT, more people need to be encouraged to consider IT related careers and without women contributing to the workforce, the sector isn’t harnessing all of its potential.

Escape provides IT installation and support services with additional expertise in VOIP phone system solutions and data cabling. The company was founded in 1999 by Mike Bain and Robin Parkinson but immediately they grasped the need to attract a female workforce.

Robin explained, “Our first engineer that we employed was a woman and our Office Manager who has been with us from the beginning is also female. Although the majority of our engineers are male, we attempt to attract as many females as possible so our workforce is diverse.

“It’s definitely an image problem with the industry – programmes like the IT Crowd highlight the problems that we have with perception. Not all IT people are geeks and male! A lot more needs to be done from the early stages at school to show what an interesting and diverse sector it is – and how much scope there is to progress for men and women.”

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show that the number of women employed in technology industries fell from 27% in 1997 to 21% in 2005 so it’s apparent that the message is still not getting through.

“I would hope that the computer world is seen as more of a ‘cool’ place to be and being a ‘geek’ doesn’t necessarily carry the negative image that it used to! IT professionals have amazing attention to detail, they are creative and intelligent – these qualities shouldn’t be dismissed!”

In America, there has even been a group set up to change the image of the IT industry – Girl Geeks supports women in the IT world and claims its ‘chic to be geek.’ With 80,000 unfilled IT jobs in the US, women in the computing industry are determined to be at the forefront of the industry and change the perception of the sector too.

Robin added: “I think more needs to be done to challenge the image of IT – perhaps more female role models for the younger generation are needed to encourage them to enter IT professions. I also think that more needs to be done to retain women – the problem with IT is that it changes so quickly so if a woman is off on maternity leave, she can feel isolated. Companies need to acknowledge what women need – we have been investing in on-line training as it’s flexible and means that if staff members have family commitments and can’t go to training courses, they don’t need to miss out on their personal development.”

Escape’s IT girls

Sam Turpitt – Engineer. Sam has been with Escape for 18 months of her 10 year IT career. Her job is to maintain and fix any IT issues for various clients. “I think companies usually do expect a male engineer but are pleasantly surprised when a female turns up! Generally, as an IT engineer, you do have to be quite robust to take the ‘banter’ and be prepared to move kit without worrying about breaking a nail. I’d advise any women that wants a career in IT to make sure your employer doesn’t pigeon hole you into a more ‘feminine job’ - if you want to be an engineer then don’t take no for an answer and work at it.”

Nicki Smith – Office Manager, joined Escape in 1999. She is PA to Directors and manages the daily running of the office. “When I tell people that I work in IT I do get the feeling they are quite surprised. It’s a fast paced industry and you have to be aware of developments in technology as well as have a good understanding of what clients need to ensure their systems run smoothly. It’s a shame that there is a lack of women working in the sector as I feel we have the advantage of our multi-tasking abilities to take to the role.”

Donna Glatley – Account Manager. Donna looks after the needs of a portfolio of clients. “The IT industry is a very fast moving competitive market, both the industry and the way we work is constantly changing. From a sales point of view, being a woman in a man’s world certainly makes me stand out from the crowd and in general I feel that people find me less intimidating when dealing with highly technical issues. Being able to communicate in a non-technical way but still have the technical know-how to back me up is a huge advantage. It’s still quite rare to have female engineers but it’s definitely positive to have a mixed-gender team.”

Alison Wishart – Helpdesk support. Alison has worked in the IT industry for over 10 years and has been with Escape for 2. She is the first port of call for any of Escape’s clients reporting a problem. “I think it’s good to have a mixture of men and women in a company - especially on a helpdesk as some female clients appreciate having a woman at the end of the telephone too.”