Haidee Parker Richmond Public Library

Getting women wired to tech jobs

Women accounted for only 15 to 20 percent of the information technology students in a recent survey of Canadian universities, and the 2001 census found that women make up only a quarter of the 410,000 information technology professionals in Canada.

Companies such as Hewlett-Packard want women on their payroll, knowing that staff diversity makes for a more user-friendly product.

Information technology firms and governments also see the recruitment of women as a way to offset the predicted shortage of skilled technology workers in the near future.

Realizing that the workers of tomorrow are in elementary and high school classrooms today, both Hewlett-Packard and IBM have offered technology camps just for girls.

Likewise, a University of Victoria site designed to welcome its female computer science students (http://wcs.csc.uvic.ca) also lists many Web sites aimed at promoting technology for girls. For instance, a link to a site called Getting Girls Interested in Computers (http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/club/girls.html) has a top 10 list to do just that.

While the reasons for the low rate of women in the information technology field are unclear, there are lots of theories. The UVIC computer science Web site links to academic and mass media sites on the subject. Some theories include the lack of teaching techniques to meet girls' needs and the fact that computer games are generally geared for boys.

Whatever the reasons, gender-based associations such as Canada's Wired Woman (http://www.wiredwoman.com) and DigitalEve (http://www.digitaleve.org) have sprouted up to encourage girls and women to pursue technology careers and provide members with business and networking opportunities.

Wired Woman, which sports the motto "technology with curves," has been around since 1996 and has a chapter in Vancouver. Monthly meetings featuring guest speakers and training and mentoring opportunities are some of the association's activities.

DigitalEve also offers face-to-face meetings as well as numerous on-line discussion groups at www.digitaleve.org/getdigital/lists.html.

The federally funded Women in Information Technology project (http://www.wittnn.com) helps keep women and girls up-to-date on the latest in information technology trends. It has explanations of computer lingo, the inside scoop from women working in the field; plus links to education, training and career tools.

This column and its links can be accessed from the Internet version of the Richmond Review, found on the Richmond Public Library's website at www.yourlibrary.ca.