Women still face obstacles in reaching the IT heights

Toyota Motor Sales' CIO spoke with candor recently about the complexities facing IT leaders. The senior-level IT professionals attending the IS Associates Spring 2001 meeting at UCLA on April 5 were in awe of Toyota's Barbra Cooper.

And I couldn't help but wonder how Cooper made it to the top of the tech hill at a Japanese auto manufacturer. What was it about Cooper that put her and, more important, kept her on the path to an executive office? There's no doubt that Cooper and other women holding executive titles are largely responsible for their career successes. But why is it that a woman in the corner office still holds such fascination? Could it be because they're still few and far between?

Results from an online survey of 265 members of WorldWIT (worldwide Women in Technology; www.worldwit.org) offer some answers. These women -- roughly half in senior-level positions -- are making positive gains in the New Economy companies but still find that balancing personal and professional lives is complex.

The upside: A majority, 73 percent, of survey respondents from WorldWIT said that working in the New Economy brings "an exhilarating sense of achievement, impact, satisfaction, and opportunity for creative freedom they didn't have before." With this positive personal valuation of their work and the level of achievement that women find in information technology, the survey concludes that women are willing to tolerate the not-so-positive aspects.

The downsides: The survey revealed the difficulties of discrimination and stress. Almost one-third of the respondents did not think they were treated equally. But gender was not the sole factor in their view. Their status in the IT industry either as a single woman, working mother, or older woman contributed to their perceptions of discrimination. Some respondents excused discrimination and other inappropriate behaviors as a result of stress within their companies or because their colleagues and managers are young.

Surprisingly, discrimination wasn't the downside most frequently cited by survey respondents. Stress was -- with more than two-thirds of the survey respondents listing stress from a round-the-clock work life, constant change, and the difficulty of balancing work and family/personal lives.

This fast-paced life and the intersection of and constant communication between working and personal lives, brings a not-so-surprising result: 41 percent of respondents were considering leaving their jobs.

That's where the alarm bells should go off for managers. They have staff members who value their contributions to the company and value their work in information technology, but in many cases those people have one foot out the door.

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