I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately. Why are there so few females working in the IT/tech/web industries? I happened to catch up with one of my female friends (who is a software developer) the other night and she had some interesting comments to say on the matter (which I won’t repeat here).

I don’t know about you but in my ideal world and workplace it would be roughly 50% male and 50% female but of course this is not always the case!

The topic is rather complex and I found some good discussions on the topic:

1. Zeldman.com – Women in web design: just the stats

2. Attitude Design UK – Where Are The Female Designers?

3. F Berriman – Women of the web

4. Web Standards – Notable web experts who are: Women and non-Caucasians

Facts:
* Men outnumber women in this workforce by over three to one.
* Women who participate in the field may not be promoted as often or as high as their male colleagues.
* The percentage of women in the IT workforce has declined by 18.5% since 1996, from a high of 41% in 1996 to 32.4% in 2004. This is true even while the percentage of women in the overall workforce remained relatively unchanged. Women are also far less likely to return to the IT workforce…

Interesting!