The Importance of Women in IT, and why IT needs Women?
As a mother, grandmother, aunty or sister, in a single day, we are asked to be a:
Doctor, Nurse, Chauffeur, Teacher, Chef, Cleaner, Mentor, Manager, Financier…
and the list goes on.
To be this one person we must be a lateral thinker someone who can solve a problem instantly, think laterally if the solution isn’t the solution that works, never give up and fit into 24-hour day what feels like 30 or more hours of productivity, even before heading to bed to face yet another day.
In the world of digital information, there is no clear solution, no roadmap to solve the problem that is stopping the delivery of the digital product that is being developed. We take on the challenge that others walk away from. We are the team member, who motivates the others when defeat is looming, turning the negative outcome into a positive one, and always looking for that silver lining. We have this innate ability to be this person, without thinking we just get the job done. We don’t say it can’t be done as we know it can be done. Nike put it succinctly “Just Do It” and we as women “Just do it”.
The above description is “why” for me there is a great importance for women to be in Information Technology Industry.
Although we may think that IT is a relatively new concept, an industry born in the 21st Century, this is incorrect as far back at circa 1840’s, women have been pioneers, have contributed in the evolution of this industry. Augusta ‘Ada’ King, Countess of Lovelace, wrote about the Analytical Engine, simple instructions to perform complex calculations.
Katherine Johnson circa 1960’s worked for NASA, manually calculating trajectories for the space flight of Alan Shepard the first American in space. She also manually calculated John Glenns orbit around earth, where Glenn refused to fly unless Katherine manually verifies the computers calculations.
Grace Hopper, not only developed COBOL a widely used computer language but served in the US Navy and in her career achieved the rank as Rear Admiral in the 1990’s.
All these women just knew that the scope of the computer was limitless, given the opportunity they were able to change the way computers were utilized and created other significant applications. These women were successful pioneers and were recognised as forward thinkers, in that 1% of the 1% of people in Mathematics and IT professionals in their time.
As the evolution of the digital age progressed specifically at the start of this century, the percentage of women in IT still isn’t on par with our male colleagues. However, we keep believing, pushing ourselves; creating our own paths, we can value add with our own unique contribution to the business or science industries we find ourselves working in. As women in IT, we will get that recognition. Just keep turning up every day, be a team member who keeps pursuing your own unique ideas as the best solutions where needed, and being the best version of ourselves that we can be every day.
I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to see the significant changes of the digital age. From the 1980’s when rows of large metal boxes needed many punch cards, being fed into them for the output; the answers we needed to do the job. To the year of 2024, when we all have sleek desktop metal boxes, that we know as laptops, tablets or mobile phones. Noticeably as the computer hardware continues to get smaller, the number of rows of code is getting larger by the day. The millions of zeros and ones, being combined and transposed into words, images and even games, that we interact with, as we are wanting more functionality from our devices.
If you have a passion for numbers, for patterns, for solving problems then it is important that you think about starting down the path of the digital industry. There are so many specialties that you can focus on, some specialties in IT being easier than others. You need to continually keep current, keep studying and growing your skills, as this industry changes dramatically every couple of years when a new stack of computer languages emerges.
I have absolutely no regrets in choosing my career in IT, working with Data and becoming a Data Specialist who enables business professionals the ability to quickly interpret the millions of rows and many columns of data with interactive dashboards I develop. My career has been long, with a lot of ups and downs, but ultimately, I have enjoyed my work every time I turn on my computer to create what I can create in the ever-changing digital world.