Women struggle to enter IT industry

Although the glass ceiling for women working in the IT industry is gradually disappearing, many are finding it hard to enter the sector at all, according to a new report.

Research by the Training Camp found that it is harder for women to get their first break in the IT sector that it is to progress in their career once there.

Two out of three female IT workers polled (67 per cent) said that getting employment in the industry was a tougher hurdle than moving up the career ladder.

More than half of respondents (52 per cent) said that they believed that career progression to senior positions for women in IT was easier than many other professions.

Rob Chapman, chief executive of the Training Camp, told IT Pro: "It's a great missed opportunity, that the IT industry has in how it presents it self. It seems to go out of the way to be unattractive to women."

The survey of 100 female IT workers suggests that more needs to be done by the IT sector to market itself to women and combat its 'geeky', male image.

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Date:15/06/2007 10:18:08